Household and Cosmos

³ Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
    within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots
    around your table.
⁴ Behold, thus shall the man be blessed
    who fears the Lord.

⁵ The Lord bless you from Zion!
    May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
    all the days of your life!
⁶ May you see your children’s children!
    Peace be upon Israel!

Fear

1. What comes to your when you think of fear
2. When do you first see anything resembling fear in the bible
3. “And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ And he said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.'” – Genesis 3:8-10
4. Man is scared here and doesn’t want to face God
5. When man met with God he received curses

Curses

The serpent’s curse:

“Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life” (Genesis 3:14)

The Woman’s Curse:

“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain, you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you” (Genesis 3:16)

The Man’s Curse:

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain, you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust, you shall return” (Genesis 3:17-19)

1. If a way leads to God, man would walk in the opposite direction so he doesn’t face the curse and wrath of God
2. There is no escaping the curse of God
3. His word remains because of his integrity
4. The first instance of fear is not associated with anything Good

Covenant of works

1. John Flavel (1627-1691): “The covenant of works was an agreement between God and man, wherein God promised eternal life to Adam upon condition of his perfect obedience.”
2. Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758): “The covenant of works was made with Adam, as the head and representative of all mankind, whereby perfect, personal, and perpetual obedience was required as the condition of life.”
3. Adam failed at his task “But like Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me.” (Hosea 6:7)
4. If we stand as children of Adam, it is only sensible that we do not go to God out of fear. We’ll hide from him

Blessed is the Fearful

1. It makes sense to say blessed is the righteous, blessed is the one with integrity, but blessed is the one who fears.
2. There is a book recommendation for you, if you go on forthetruth and get a book called Redemptive Reversals, it will greatly bless you
3. In the book GK Beale makes mention of how God works out his plans using Irony, he goes against the expectations of man and reverses stories to achieve his plans and purposes

Reversals

1. Adam ate the forbidden fruit and hence feared God and was cursed
2. The man of the Psalms feared God and hence was blessed and ate of the promised fruit
3. The woman was cursed with pain in childbearing, but these children would be like olive shoots. They become an investment for the future
4. Olive shoots are of no use in and of themselves, but they grow to be of use
5. Like children, you lose money and energy in raising them, but they take care of you in the future and bless the kingdom

Man’s Sex Drive & Cosmos

1. God will bless from the place of his dwelling and his rule
2. What was a very personal and familial thing in the first 4 verses has become a national blessing for the land
3. A man’s sex drive creates civilizations
4. Piety in this psalm has direct connotations to having family and children
5. When a godly man has a family it is an act of worship and God blesses him through it
6. Family, children, and sex are all spiritual matters
7. When you see the world invested in all of this you think of them as worldly matters. But the matter of the fact is that it is a perversion of otherwise Godly matters
8. Man’s sex drive, combined with the fear of God leads to Godly generations
9. Man who is obedient to the scripture married a Godly woman and she was fruitful in his house she gave birth to olive shoots who would grow up to be olive trees and Jerusalem was blessed
10. When you hear the word cosmos what do you think of it? Planets and stars right?
11. When we talk about spiritual warfare what do we think of? Do with thinking of semi-transparent beings
12. We get a bulk of our understanding of Spirituality from Tom&Jerry
13. “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest?” – Isaiah 66:1
14. We think of Spirituality as limited to bible studies and church meetings and quiet times. But if the whole cosmos is his temple then what do we do?
15. You see the centres of spirituality is not limited to our heart or what we feel
16. “You are living sacrifices” Romans 12
17. “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31
18. Are these things holy for us

Calling And Genders

1. “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 2:4-5
2. Misused to say there is no difference between the calling of men and women
3. Men and women have equal access and worth in front of God
4. Many people are comfortable saying that we are the same and we have different roles as well
5. But no, we have different designs as well, this is very very important to know
6. Men and women are not the same species at all and it is essential for us to know. Or we’ll make a mess of things
7. Every time a man and woman speak there is more happening there than what happens when two men or two women talk to each other
8. We have to learn the design, strengths and weaknesses of men and women
9. There’s a difference between telling a guy “That’s a terrible t-shirt” vs telling a woman “Whoa, that’s a terrible outfit”
10. Men and women speak different languages
11. Men thrive on encouragement and respect, women on love and care
12. Not that these are not necessary for the other parties
13. We do stupid things when we don’t see these differences
    1. Guys having girl accountability partners
    2. Guys who come and say “Brother I have struggled with porn, but whenever I am tempted I immediately call a sister at our fellowship and let her know”
    3. Husbands when they give solutions to women’s problems when they have a mood out
    4. A wife who would call her husband and say “Looks like you are having a struggle with finances, let me give you some tips”
    5. Women learn to not be dominant, don’t be chatterboxes, keep themselves from being gossipers, and learn to love the inside of the house. Doesn’t matter what the world says, love the kitchen, make those cookies.
    6. Your cookies crush the head of the serpent more than 500 women bible teachers tour countries to teach exegesis to women
    7. Men love to work hard, learn to take responsibility, learn to take criticism and correction. Always want to improve in everything that you do. Acknowledge your weaknesses and mistakes and work hard to overcome them. Take charge and lead.
    8. Fathers teach their children and don’t outsource it to anyone. Don’t be surprised if your children grow to be like the people who taught them
    9. Fathers disciple your family and children, even if it is a little you know teach that. Come ask the elders to teach you what you should teach next week if you are out of content. Be generous and giving. Take care of the people who surround you.
    10. Women learn to cook and learn to be hospitable. Learn to take care of the household
    11. “Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. 6 Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. 7 Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, 8 and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.” — Titus 2:3-8
    12. We read only Older women teach younger women
14. Own the genders that God has given you. Try to thrive in it
15. When you do that Jerusalem will be built
16. If you want Trivandrum to be blessed, then start with your family not by calling for a Holy Fire conference in Puthirikkandam Maidanam
17. Pietism is a convenient excuse to sound spiritual without being spiritual

Christ And The Antithesis

Cursed is Lord Jesus,
who always walked in God’s ways!
2 You shall eat the fruit of the labor of Christ’s hands;
you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.
3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots
around your table.
He received no honour from his household
And they rejected their cornerstone
4 Behold, Christ the God-man was cursed
5 The Lord Cursed Christ at Golgotha!
Jerusalem received God’s judgement
And was cut off from the covenant of God!
6 Israeli children and children’s children were cut off!

Wrath was upon Christ!