To find out more about The Centre visit;
www.thecentredural.org.au/church/
We meet at 10am every Sunday in person and online at;
www.youtube.com/@centredural
We're a Church in Dural, Sydney who want to
Make Jesus The Centre of our lives, community, and world.
Join us for a time of worship, community and teaching.
Remember to stay in contact with the church, especially if you or anyone you know is in need.
Get Connected: https://www.thecentredural.org.au/church/new/
Prayer Requests: https://www.thecentredural.org.au/church/prayer/
Tithing Information: https://www.thecentredural.org.au/church/giving/
Follow "BANTER"; the podcast where we unpack each week's sermon with the pastoral team: Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/6ReaCaCb6U7r4EjdJQdajy?si=11f44dcd078e4707
Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-centre-dural-podcast/id1035454799
Hey, welcome to The Centre podcast. We're a church based in Dural, Sydney, who loves Jesus. And so want to make him the center of our lives, community and world. We pray that you, blessed by this word and that it reveals God's love for you in a new way.
for those who read the pastor's desk on Friday, you are probably aware that we're looking at something a little bit different this morning.
Something a little bit, uncommon for us to spend that much time on in a usual service. We're looking at the genealogies, the genealogies, or at least two of the genealogies in Genesis. I think it's really important before I get into this just, you know, as a bit of a good pastoral care that I think that when we look at the genealogies and how we interpret them in their genre, it ultimately isn't a necessity of the gospel.
Whether we want to read these genealogies that we're reading as straight, historical, or is something which is maybe playing into an ancient Near Eastern genre. It ultimately doesn't really change the fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that he came to earth. They died for our sins. They rose on the third day, ascended to heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the father.
Amen. So as we build on that, I just first wanted to maybe unpack some of the rationale behind why I thought that this might be an important thing to even explore. And for me personally, growing up, I went to a secular school, and it was the kind of secular, selective schools. So it sort of attracted a certain ilk of people.
So I end up finding myself as an 18, 19, 20 year old, being friends with a bunch of very intellectual atheists, which essentially meant that when I was trying to share the gospel with them, they were getting stuck at Genesis one. They were getting stuck at Genesis two. They were getting stuck at Genesis three. They were getting stuck at Genesis four and five, which we're going be looking at today.
That was saying, how possibly am I supposed to believe that somebody lived to 969 when there is no archeological evidence of anyone living beyond the age of 60 at that time, and me being a little bit less informed about maybe how we can read some of these ancient texts at that point. Got so caught up in Genesis one two, three, four, or five.
We never got to Jesus. In fact, we didn't even get to Exodus. And I think that's why it's important for us to look at this today and say that irrespective of how we might want to read these passages, whether we want to take them all as absolutely historical facts or interpret them as something which is still historical but written in a certain type of genre that we aren't really accustomed to, that we're doing this because is actually a deep evangelical heart to this, that there are way too many people in our culture who are getting caught up in these first passages at the expense of never getting to Jesus.
And this is the point of Scripture, right? It's supposed to point us towards Jesus. So as we look at this today, I want you to just have a bit of an open mind. And when you have an opportunity, as Maurice said, to think that underneath the surface of this water, there might be something else going on, something much deeper, and something maybe even more powerful.
So with all of that in mind, I want to kind of get into it. So let me quickly pray for us. So, Lord Jesus, we thank you that you are omniscient, that as you were seated at the right hand of the father, now you know all. And God, we thank you that you are the creator of all things and God, we thank you that we don't know it all.
We thank you that you call us to come into a place of humility, into a place of submission to you and ultimately God, into a place of faithfulness. To continue to wrestle with this text and understand what your heart is, to understand what your overarching story is, which is that you love us. Do you want to be in relationship with us?
But God, you also want us to engage each day in knowing you. Sometimes that can look like a wrestle. So I pray that as we do that this morning, that we would grow into a close the likeness of Christ, that we would grow in our love, that we'd grow in our humility, and we'd be led by your spirit in Jesus name, Amen.
So I think we would all agree that the pretty well known passage in two Timothy 316 to 17 says, All Scripture, all Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Interestingly, one of the commentaries that I was reading this week in preparation for this sermon actually pointed to another passage of Scripture, Deuteronomy 32 seven, which is some of Moses's sort of last words to the Israelites before he dies.
And in this passage he says, remember the days of old. Consider the generations long past. Ask your father, and he will tell you your elders, and I'll explain to you. She said, in some ways, this passage is so timely for us today, because we need to look at these genealogies and look back to our forefathers of the faith to understand more deeply what might be going on here.
And ultimately, this is what I want to be doing this morning. So we're going to be looking right now at two genealogies that are sort of back to back in Genesis four and five. They're the family lines of Adam and Eve's two sons that we sort of are told about, that go on to have, you know, children and children and children.
So this is the lines of Cain and then Seth. So we'll remember that Cain was the brother who, you know, famously kills Abel. He's a murderer. He's sort of the classic what not to do. And then we have Seth, who is seen as the father of the line of eventually Jesus. But Noah and Moses and all of the heroes of the faith kind of come through Seth.
So as we read these, I want to just ask you to do three things for me. The first one is just pretend. This is the first time you've ever read these. Marty Solomon, the theologian, talks about the lullaby effect that Scripture can have on us when we've read it. Five, ten, 15, 20, 100 times before we start to get lulled into a sense of familiarity that we no longer ask the questions in the Scripture and the way that rabbinical teaching goes is you're looking for problems in the text, because that is often with gold is what problems are in this text.
The next thing I want you to do is notice the difference between the two genealogies. There's some really notable differences in the way that both of them are structured, and the finest thing is noticed. Any obvious problems and challenges, which I've already said. So with that in mind, let's get into it. The line of Cain. Genesis four 1726 I very mercifully didn't get mastery this way.
Too many Hebrew names, I think, for someone to be reading off the cuff. So I'm just going to fumble through it. So Cain made love to his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch. To Enoch was born Irad and Irad was the father of Yale and Yale was the father of Matthew Shale.
And Matthew Shale was the father of lemon. Lemon married two women, one named Athena and the other Zillah. Ada gave birth to Jabal. He was the father of those who live in tents and raised livestock. His brother's name was Jubal. He was the father of all who play stringed instruments and pipes. Zillah also had a son, Tubal Cain.
He forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron. Tubal Cain sister was Nama Lamech said to his wives Ida and Zillah. Listen to me, wives of Lemack hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me. If Cain is avenged seven times, then 77 times. Okay, so obviously just earlier in the Scripture, Cain says to God, don't send me out into the wilderness.
I'll be I'll be killed. It's unsafe out there. And God says, I promise you that anybody who causes you any harm, you will be avenged seven times. And now he's saying, I'll be avenged 77 times with numbers to us. If we were reading this for the first time. Yeah. Why 77 times, wouldn't we? I mean, because we're kind of.
We fall into that lullaby reading of it, we go, oh, well, obviously serving is the holy number. And obviously seven had great significance to the ancient Hebrews. But if we'll read this the first time, we go 77 times, that's that's odd. What's going on there? All right. So let's jump over now into the line of Seth. When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image, and he named him Seth after Seth was born.
Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters all together. Adam lived a total of 930 years, and then he died when Seth had lived 105 years. He became the father of Enos after he became the father of another. Seth lived 807 years and had other sons and daughters altogether. Seth lived a total of 912 years, and then he died.
When Enoch had lived 90 years. He became the father of Canaan after he became the father of Cain. And Enos lived 815 years and had other sons and daughters altogether. Enos lived a total of 905 years, and then he died when Kenan had lived 70 years. He became the father of Mahalo after he became the father of Mahalo, Kanan lived 840 years and had other sons and daughters.
Altogether, Kanan lived a total of 910 years, and then he died. Then the Mahalo had lived 65 years. He became the father of Jared after he became the father of Jared. Mahalo lived 830 years and had other sons and daughters all together. Mahalo lived a total of 895 years. And then he died. When Jared had lived 162 years.
He became the father of Enoch after he became the father of Enoch. Jared lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters all together. Jared lived a total of 962 years and then he died. We're almost there. When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters all together.
Enoch lived a total of 365 years, and Enoch walked faithfully with God. Then he was no more, because God took him away when Methuselah. So I had lived 187 years. He became the father of lemak after he became the father of Lamech. Methuselah lived 782 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Methuselah lived a total of 969 years, and then he died.
The oldest person recorded in the Bible, 969 years when Lima had lived 180 years. He had a son. He named him Noah. This is the end, he said. He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed. After Noah's born, Lamech lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters altogether, lived a total of 777 years.
And then he died after Noah's 500 years old, he became the father of Shem Ham in Japan. So again, we're looking at these questions. What stands out to us? Well, I think if we're being really honest, if we're being really, really honest with us, what stands out is why are these people so old? Like, why are these people so old?
Like, what is going on? What is going on? And nonsensical ages, you know, like some of them, you go, oh, okay, I'm starting to see a pattern here. Like, you know, 800 years. Cool. Three oh, like 912 years. 960 now what's this mean? What am I supposed to do with this? I guess I just gotta have faith in the words of George Michael.
I just gotta have faith. Faith, faith. That's what I gotta do, right? That's what we're told in Sunday school. We just gotta have faith. God can do all things right. God can do all things. But you know, we have to also, when we say God can do all things, no. God's nature. Like for example, this is an extreme example, but I think it's helpful if you found out suddenly write that on the side.
I've been involved in nefarious acts, right? That I was doing awful things, that I was, you know, ending people's lives and taking people hostage and doing these awful things. You'd go, well, yeah, like Murray could do that. But is it aligned with his nature that I know of him? Is that how he usually operates? Well, no, no, that's not how he operates.
So when we say, yeah, like God can do all things. Yes. But God also operates faithfully within his nature. This is a glaring problem that we ignore. And the reality is, I think part of the reason that we take such a staunch stance against like, well, it's God's word. So it must be fact is, because we actually live in an era that tells us this narrative that there's two teams Christianity, religion, faith and science and reason and rationale, and that these two things cannot at all synthesize and harmonize in any way that they complete pull the opposites.
And if you truly believe the Bible, then scientists are just arrogant atheists who don't trust the Word of God. And if you're a scientist, will Christians are just dumb, naive people who don't actually care about scientific inquiry and revelation. And yet, this is a very new narrative in the history of our world. This is very, very new is only about the 1800s with the enlightenment and rationalism, that people started thinking that these two things couldn't be mutually harmonious.
It's very, very recent. And we get caught up in this lie, in this narrative of our culture that says that science and Christianity cannot synthesize, cannot work together. In fact, all the way back in the 1200s, the saint Thomas Aquinas wrote this in one of his two most famous books, summary against the Gentiles. He writes. So it's unreasonable and even shameful for someone to accept the belief of the faith blindly without trying to understand why it's true, especially if they have the ability to understand it.
It's fine for ordinary people to believe without deep understanding. Again, remember at this time a lot of people were illiterate. So just putting that into context of what an ordinary person might look like for Thomas Aquinas to believe without deep understanding, because they may not be able to grasp the reasons. But for those who are educated, believing without seeking understanding is actually sinful.
Who believing without understanding is actually sinful. So. Houston. Popular theories about why people lived so well. First, the calendars were different. So one sort of common rationale behind why people live so long is because when they say someone lived for so many years, they actually meant that they live for that many months. That's sort of how we should be reading it, which means divide all the ages by 12.
And suddenly Methuselah, who lived to 969, becomes a very, you know, more reasonable 81 years old, even though, you know, all of the evidence says that no one lived past 60. I think we could probably stomach 81. Right. I'm I can't get my head around that. But then that brings up a whole bunch of other problems. For instance, if we're to divide everybody's age by 12, it means that Adam fathered his third child, Seth, at the age 11.
And it means that Enoch would have had Methuselah when he was about five.
It's also like no other mention in records of the way that the words were used for a year in ancient Hebrew to mean anything other than a solar year. So I don't I don't find that that convincing. Another sort of rationale is sort of a large groupings of arguments that there's a change of Earth's rotation or atmosphere that somehow maybe the Earth was spinning faster, so the sun moved quicker, so years happened faster, or maybe there was some sort of canopy of water above in the sky, that this was a scientific thing, and not just the way that the ancient Hebrews understood the world.
But again, there's just no archeological evidence to support any of this at all. And again, the fact is that the average age of a man living in the ancient Near East is about 40 Max 60. And there are actually these legal documents and taxation records that we have at this time of people living to about 40 to 60.
There's no evidence of any skeletons ever been found of anyone in that era who live past about 60. Then finally there's the dynasty clan explanation, which is like, well, when it says that Adam, that this song, that was his legacy, his clan. But there's no real precedent for any other place where a legacy and a lineage is spoken about in that way, when it's then passed to a son and a grandson and he's still the lineage of Adam, it doesn't change just because somebody's son came in or someone's grandson is still, if we're talking about the age of Adam in that way, it would continue.
And then the reality is some of these sons, we say in the text, interacting with their fathers. So we say that Noah didn't have his sons until age 500, and then Shem and Ham and Japheth are on the ark with him. So these people were existing at the same time. The fathers and the sons often. But there is a final option which I find most convincing, which is we're reading the genre wrong.
I think we're reading the genre wrong if we're going to read it literally. And I said on the In the Passage desk on Friday, it's hard because we don't understand the genre of ancient genealogies, but if we were to live in a place where we didn't understand love poetry as a genre and didn't understand the rhetorical devices of metaphor, well, the woman in the Song of Songs wouldn't really be that beautiful.
Your eyes are like doves. Your hair is like a flock of goats. Your teeth are like a flock of use. Your lips are like a scarlet thread. Your temples are a slice of pomegranate. Your neck is like the Tower of David. Your breasts are like two phone gazelle. Probably not winning any Miss Universe any time soon. Yeah, I don't know why.
You know, as tradition says, King Solomon thought that she was so beautiful. And we think that's ridiculous. Of course, because we know the genre. We know how to read that in context. So what? How should we better understand the genre of biblical genealogy? Well, I'm going to hand over to Doctor John Walton, who is not, if not the one of the leading biblical scholars in understanding how ancient Near Eastern worldviews, supposed to be synthesized with Scripture.
So let's quickly see what he has to say. I'm John Walton, I'm a professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College, and my specialty is understanding the Old Testament against the background of the ancient near. I'm John Walton, I'm a professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College, and my specialty is understanding the Old Testament against the background of the ancient Near East.
All of these people and the visuals don't really matter. Just just listen to what he has to say. That's all right. It's just the white guy. And I'm John Walton. I'm a professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College, and my specialty is understanding the Old Testament against the background of the ancient Near East. All of these people in early genealogies of Genesis, living for hundreds and hundreds of years, Methuselah, 969 years.
How do we read something like that? Well, if we try to read it in the context of the ancient world, it might lead us to think differently than how we just think in our world. So, for instance, we're aware of piece of ancient literature called the Sumerian King List, and that records ten kings who ruled before the flood.
And their reigns were 36,000 years, 43,000 years, 18,000 years, a real youngster then. And so we see again, great. Time periods involved. And one of the questions we have to ask is, are they using numbers the same way we use numbers? Now, I'm not talking about mathematical systems. I'm talking about rhetorical value. What exactly do they mean by those numbers?
Numbers can be used rhetorically. We use them rhetorically at times. And so how do you tell the difference when a culture is using them rhetorically, or when they're using them precisely as numeric values? And that's the tricky thing. Genealogies in the ancient world are not the same. They don't have the same function as the genealogies that we might do today.
So we always have to be willing to make the cultural shift. I had a friend who was visiting Indonesia, and he went to a village and a woman was speaking, and she was introduced as a 40 year old woman, which she thought was strange because we'd never introduce a woman by her age, but he kind of registered in his mind.
She was obviously respected in the community. He came back to that village two years later, and the same woman was introduced to speak, and she was introduced as a 50 year old woman. At that point, his logic gear kicked in and he said, wait a minute. She just two years ago, I was here and she was 40 years old, and now she's 50 years old.
What's going on? And she said, oh, that has nothing to do with my age. That goes totally against our intuition. But she said, that has to do with the status of respect I have within the community, and has nothing to do with how old I am. And so later that day, when my friend was introduced as a 50 year old man, he was very honored by that being only 35.
Different cultures use numbers differently, and we shouldn't jump to conclusions by insisting that we must read them the same way they would be used in our culture. We have to try to understand how they might have used those numbers rhetorically.
Awesome, great. So yeah, professor John Walton, he works at Wheaton College, one of the most respected theological seminaries in the world, highly respected on staff, highly regarded within theological circles. I want to push forward to this next graph, which breaks down the ages in a way which we're not really used to, because if we saw that, you know, Abraham lived to 900 and then Seth lived to 800, and then if they were kind of clean, round numbers by our logic of a ten based system, we'd go, okay, that's another flag.
But the thing is, when when this genealogy was written, it was working off a base 60 system, which seems really weird to us, but ancient Mesopotamian math, which would have been how they were understanding numbers at that time, was based off 60. It's why we have 60s in a minute still today, and it's why we have 60 minutes in an hour, and that's why there is 360 degrees, six by 60 in a circle.
We still have inherited a lot of this 60 base mathematics today. It was a very widely used way of doing maths. So we've got base 60 okay. We understand that. And then 60 months equaled five years. So we've got six and five and then we've got the holy number throughout the ancient Near East which is seven. And you can literally make up every single one of the ages of the patriarchs in that genealogy from additions of 65 and seven.
And it's predominantly 60s and fives and sometimes sevens are thrown in there. And I was reading this and I'm like, I know, is this convincing? I'm kind of not convinced. Like, this kind of seems like someone really clever, just like finally figured out how to smush the numbers to make them make sense. So I actually texted our resident math genius, Josh Pate, this week, and I asked him, Josh, what is the likelihood if I generated 30 numbers randomly between 1 to 1000, that they all end in only zero, two, five, seven, or nine?
Okay, that's what I asked him. It's probably not very challenging math question for him to be honest, but it was challenging for me. So I asked him, hey Josh, if you answer random generate 30 numbers from 1 to 1000, what are the odds that they only end in zero, two, five, 7 or 9? He replied exactly half of the numbers between 1 to 1000 and in zero, two, five, 7 or 9.
So the probability that you generate 30 numbers that complete random, that only end in zero, two, five, seven, or nine is 1 in 2 to the power of 30. So that's one in 1 in 2 times, two times, two times two times two times 230 times. So we're talking about 1 in 1,073,000,000. That's that's the odds of that happening just by chance.
Interesting. And then he adds, however, and this is why it's important to us, people are actually good at math. These questions, he said that there's actually something else that's going on here. He said the 30 numbers are not actually random as the third number in each set is actually addition of the first two. It says Adam lived this long until he had Seth, and then he lived for this many more years and all that.
He lived that long. That is the structure of every single one. Is person had this son at this age, lived this many more years, and then lived this long. So what is then the odds of these numbers all still ending in these five numbers? With that addition added, he goes, what's a bit less? I said, well, how less?
He goes, oh, it's only about 1 in 90,000,000.
It's still pretty unlikely that just happened by chance. So through Josh, incredibly thorough calculations, if these ages are random, there's a one inch 90 million chance that they just by chance that these ones. It's more likely that there's a pattern going on and we see this. John Bolton mentioned this to Mary in King's text. It's only two slides.
Let's quickly read it. These are these ages that we see 28,800 years, 36,000 years. They ruled for 64,800 years or a lot. So we see again there's numbers. And then in addition of them and interestingly, they lived even longer than those in Genesis like 45 times longer. So if we're to use this as biological evidence for people living that long, it kind of doesn't hold up because these kings lived like 45 times longer than even Methuselah, who lived to 969.
So it can't really help us set a biological precedence. But what it can help set is a rhetorical literary genre style precedence that when we look at ancient lists of kings, they lived for a really, really, really long time to indicate that they were important, to indicate that they were powerful. Interestingly, every single one of the numbers in this list are all evenly divisible by 60.
Interesting. If we go to the next slide, you'll notice that this Kings list lasted until the flood. So there's more comparisons to be made between the Sumerian King list and the genealogy in Genesis, because these are people who go right up until this flood that's recognized throughout the ancient Near East that occurred this moment. The flood. And then also, interestingly, is that final number 241,200.
That's the accumulation of all of the years that these Sumerian kings reigned. If you were to, just for fun, divide it by 60 and then divide it by 60 again, you'd get the number 67, 60 plus the holy number seven, which is the holy number throughout the ancient Near East. In texts. It's pretty unlikely that all of these kings just happened to live perfectly round numbers that perfectly divide into 60.
Now, this is all great hidden knowledge, but like, what was this actually mean? How does it actually apply for us? Well, for first it means that we can read these genealogies in a way which is still faithful to our understanding of science and how long people lived at that time. Which means that when we're talking to people about the Bible, we're not getting caught at Genesis four and five, we can say, hey, actually, there's this ancient rhetorical style, the way that genealogies were written back then, that's very different to the way that we understand it.
But what is then Genesis five thing? Well, for one, it's setting these people up as kings, as kingly figures. And we see in the line of Cain that the the climactic king Lamech is all the things you don't want to be. He builds cities for his own glory. He's a warmonger who wants to revenge, fully kill people. And he has multiple wives, which is also something that we don't see recorded in Seth's lineage.
And when it gets to Abraham and he decides, oh, this thing with falling pregnant isn't really working. Hey, Hagar, why don't we. It doesn't really work out. This is the repeated story that we see throughout Scripture. When men take multiple wives, it doesn't work out great. Lemack is the kind of king of the greater world. He comes from the line of Cain.
He's become like the people around him. And they're saying, this isn't the kind of king that you want to become, because Genesis five is setting up Noah's line as a new type of kings. Kings who don't try to build these massive legacies for their own glory, but for God's glory. Enoch is the only one who is mentioned does anything other than have children.
And what does he do? He walks faithfully with the Lord. And then at 365 years, interesting amount. I don't know, 365 the interesting number for anyone, he decides. Oh, sorry. God decides to take him up to heaven. Seen as a righteous man.
Now, obviously the point is that yeah, we are. We are a priestly priesthood of believers, of kings and queens. But Jesus is our ultimate king. And what happens is when we take the posture of Jesus, who doesn't look to establish lineage and legacy for himself, who doesn't look to collect people as objects and tools of his own desire and wielding power, and who ultimately tells us to turn the other cheek, tells us to forgive our enemy, tells us to pray blessings upon those who curse us.
We see that this heart of kingship, of leadership, of stewardship, is being juxtaposed at the very beginning. And it's what we're meant to step into, to not be focusing about what can we build for our own legacy, for our own power, for our own prestige? But what can God be building through me? So not be thinking, how can I collect people as objects and tools to achieve my own ends, but instead to treat people with love and dignity, even to the point of forgiving and loving enemies?
Completely counter-cultural.
I might jump forward to one Peter two nine. You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a royal holy nation, God's special position. You may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Even in revelation 510 to the four living creatures in the 24 elders proclaim to God, you have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God.
And I will reign on earth for ever.
And then, Matt, I might jump forward to my next point. That Genesis five reminds us of the importance of legacy that ultimately, if any of these men at any point had decided to go off on their own side, quest to not have Noah, to not have Seth to not later in Scripture have Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph to not have Jesus, to not be a faithful steward of the next generation, then ultimately, where would give God's story ended up?
But it reminds us the importance of legacy. And as we are adopted into the family of Abraham Church, we're not just people who made on Sundays. We are. We are sons and daughters together. We must be part of this family. And as we're talking about legacy, it's not just the children and grandchildren and great grandchildren and our own lives, but it's the young children that we see here this morning.
I and Emily are personally so thankful that we have people that we see intentionally investing in George's life. Even right now, people like Phil Mickelson, who is like obsessed with every single Thursday that he comes into the office, he wants to chat to Phil about firefighting like John Williams. Every single time these up at the community garden, he's like, John, can I, like, climb in your van?
Can I, like, see your bobcat? Can I see you do this? Can I see you do that? Can I help you? And John is very, very, very patient and kind and generous and gracious.
This is the sort of significance that goes all the way forward to Luke's gospel, when he lines Jesus's genealogy all the way from Adam to Jesus and peaches Jesus as the 76th generation in the list, which then means for us that we are the 77th generation in that list, as we are inherited into that family of believers, that there is a great command and call upon our lives to take this very seriously.
As people who are getting you that legacy. And finally, metal jump forward to Genesis four reminds us nothing but God can save us because interestingly, Enoch's legacy is he walked faithfully with the Lord all the days of his life and then God took him up to heaven. Lemak the good lemak, Noah's father, lived for 777 years, and then he had Noah, who's going to redeem humanity.
And yet we see, surprisingly in Genesis four that it's all of Cain's sons who seem to be the entrepreneurs who seem to be the ones who live in tents and raise livestock, the ones who create instruments and music, the ones who forge iron and steel, say, I think we can so often think that human endeavor and ingenuity is the thing that's going to save us, that if we just get better medicine, if we just get better governmental legislation, if we just create more beautiful art, than we will save the world.
And what these two genealogies are showing is that while those things aren't evil in and of themselves, when we place our hope in those, we just end up like the world. But when we place that hope in God and walk faithfully with him all the days of our life, then we can be part of a legacy which is eternal.
Yeah, cool up the band. Let us pray.
Father God, we thank you that we don't know it all once more. May we be humbled once more. May we be brought to our knees in worship once more. May we be reminded of the shoulders of the fathers of the faith. That we stand on the shoulders of the mothers of the faith that we stand on. Lord, may we not become ambivalent or complacent about the role that we play as the next people who take that baton for as people who walk faithfully with the Lord all the days of our life, as people who invest in the next generation of believers.
God, we just recognize that the most impactful thing we might do in our lives is invest in a future hero of the faith that might be the most important thing we do in our lives to God. I just want to pray right now that you would help us to have a deeper sense of community here, a deeper sense of legacy, a deeper sense of investing and discipling and mentoring, but not for our glory, not for those who go for its glory, but God ultimately for your glory.
We don't want to build cities for our own name. We don't want to use people as objects and tools for our own planning and striving. God, we don't want to hang on to any of our own developments and inventions, and striving as the thing that's going to save us is, Lord, when we put our hope in things which a man made.
We let go of the things which God made. And God, we thank you that you have a plan for us. We thank you that you have a purpose for us. We thank you that you have a hope and a future. And Lord, I pray that as we step into that this morning, we can continue to be stewards of the faith.
You step into that 77th generation.
And can make an impact for your Kingdom. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Thanks so much for joining us. Don't forget to write and subscribe to help others discover this channel. Check out the description if you want to find out more or get in touch with us at The Centre. But in the meantime, praying for God's hand over you as you continue to step into everything Jesus has in store for your life.
