I was reading in Genesis the other day when the Lord opened my eyes to the disobedience and curse of Adam and Eve.
The disobedience and curse of Adam and Eve is still happening today AMONG brethren. Today we greatly see the shortage of men taking up the cross and leading their families to do the same. Now we see more women wanting to lead and men just busy working and filled with stress! How did this happen? Let’s go back to the sin of Adam and Eve.
Gen 3:10-19:
So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”
Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”
And the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’:
“ Cursed is the ground for your sake;
In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life.
Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,
And you shall eat the herb of the field.
In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.”
In these verses you see Adam blaming his wife for sinning. But who did God command at first not to eat of the tree of Knowledge? And who did the Lord call when He saw that they were hidden in the garden? ADAM!!
Gen 2:16,17
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Gen 3:9
Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”
We see God left Adam in charge. But it seems Adam allowed his wife to lead. In Gen 3:17 God curesed Adam for heeding his wife’s voice above God. Not only did he sin by eating the fruit she gave him but Adam also sinned by putting his wife above God.
This sin has left Adam toiling hard (working hard) where he cannot enjoy it’s fruit.
Husbands, when you find yourselves working hard with a lot of stress for your wife and family that is called a curse. Today you can see many Christian men under this curse. Why are so many under this curse still? Simply for heeding the voice of their wives instead of the Lord’s and not following the way of the cross that leads to spiritual blessings.
Many Christian men are listening to their wives because they fear them more than God. They trust their judgments more than God’s. And many continue to desire more of the world rather than the cross that causes them to be weak toward their wives . And because men will not lead this causes a great stumbling for the women to feel she has too, and so it open up many doors for her to be used by satan just like Eve and bring more curses onto the family. For it is a rare thing to find a godly woman who seeks the Lord on her own. Many need their husbands to water them with the Word. But, where are the husbands? Toiling at work!
Men, when you heed your wife’s voice above God it will lead you to a cursed life full of stress and bondage. If men were to put God’s voice above their wives and follow Him to their cross, God would deliver them from the curse of TOILING FOR MAN and bless them with peace, joy, and much grace in leading their family towards the cross of Christ.
Men, heed the voice of the Lord and obey Him or else if you listen to the voice of your wife you will sin against God in the same way Adam did. God has commanded you to take up your cross and heed His word. If not obeyed you will find yourself under the curse of toiling in the flesh and never enjoying it’s fruit. And your family will not be blessed.
Why do pastors joke? Why do they feel the need that they have to joke when delivering a sermon? Did Jesus joke when He preached? Did He feel the need to get people laughing in order that they would receive the Word? NO! Or else He would not trust that His Word alone is living and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow and is discerner of thoughts and intents of the heart (heb. 4:12).
It grieves me when I hear pastors, and teachers continually joking when they are sharing God’s holy Word. Such joking causes many to take the Word lightly. The bible say that we must tremble at His word, not to laugh at it!
Isaiah 66:2
But on this one I will look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, AND WHO TREMBLES AT MY WORD.
How is joking helping the sheep tremble at God’s Word, to take His Word seriously?
It is true that pastors who are filled with jokes when presenting God’s Word cause the sheep to see preaching as entertainment, not seeing God as Holy, but like one of us!
The reason why many pastors joke in their preaching is because they have a fear of man. They still desire to please man above God. They want praise from men. Such pastors cannot be entrusted with the gospel. For they will compromise the Word so that man would like them.
Gal.1:10
For do I now persuade men, or God? For if I still please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.
It is the last days when you have churches filled with laughter instead of a broken and contrite heart. Where are the broken hearted? One who morns like Moses and would die for the backslidden Israelite. Like Paul who suffered much for the church that she may grow maturely. Or like Jesus who wept for Jerusalem. I cannot find hardly any Christians who weeps over the affliction of Joseph (Church), but rather they are at ease in Zion (the church, Amos 6:1-7)! The Lord says WOE to those who are at ease when they should be grieving for the backslidden church!
Yes, such joking pastors will make the sheep at ease when they should be broken!
You cannot find one man in the bible who cracked a lot of jokes while delivering God’s Word. For God’s Word is to be taken seriously!
Imagine the prophets proclaiming God’s Word with much joking. They would not have been persecuted. The people would love them because the joking would show them that the prophets were not serious and not to be taken seriously. But, many prophets were killed because they were so serious when preaching and the people hated that because the Word was preached in the Spirit with all seriousness exposing their wicked hearts. The prophets believed His Word with much fear and trembling.
Why isn’t the church trembling over God’s Word today? One main reason is because the pastors give humorous sermons. So why are many pastors full of jokes today? Fear of persecution! I tell you the truth, many profess Christians HATE a serious preacher. Many do not want to come to the reality of their wicked hearts and needing to repent and forsake their lust of the world. Many want to be in delusion that believes it is enough to confess I believe in Jesus. It is enough to say I believe in the narrow way. But do not want to believe with their hearts that it is the only way or else they would hunger for the seriousness of the truth and obey! Many pastors give in to the people’s wants because they fear man above God.
Today many joking pastors have been raised up because this is what many profess Christians want or else if many churches were hungry for the truth God would raise up many shepherds after His heart
Jer. 3:12-15
“Return O backsliding children,” says the Lord; for I am married to you. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.
And I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.
But, many today are crying out for a joking pastor that will make them feel good and forget how serious the way of the cross is.
Jeremiah says:
“For my people are foolish. They have not known Me. They are silly children, and they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil. But to do good they have no knowledge.”
God’s name is to be feared, but the fear of the Lord is not in them (Jer. 2:19)
If the people did have understanding and knowledge of Him they would not be laughing, but fearful, seeing God as GOD! Who is jealous for His name! And the pastor would be weeping like Jeremiah for the sins of his people!
The people of God must repent of this foolishness! For bringing His Word down with much joking and humorous preaching causing many to stumble and not to fear God. I am broken to see and hear that many professing Christians are taking in the Word with much laughter to please themselves when they should be repenting in sack cloth and ashes crying out for God to revive them.
For Jesus did not die so that we could crack jokes in the pulpit and have humorous sermons about the cross!!!
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