 Today, we'll go for a few weeks. The series is called The Fall of Man. Before we get into the Bible story here and the lesson this morning, what is the series about? The series is about what changed after this story. Man, Adam, and his wife basically had one rule to follow and they broke that rule. They rebelled against God and things changed after they made this decision. Things changed for them and for all generations beyond them. So we're going to be looking at what changed after man's rebellion against God here in Genesis 3. What changed? What was the reason for that change? So what changed and why is what we're looking at in this series called The Fall of Man. Look down at Genesis 3 and verse number 13. We're going to start here and look at the first thing that changed in our series this morning. Look at verse number 13 of Genesis chapter 3 if you would. And the Bible says, and the Lord God, so this is after Eve has taken from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and Genesis chapter 2 and verse number 17. We see this rule that God says they can eat of anything in the garden, including the tree of life, which is the important thing, and then they are not allowed to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But of course Eve is tricked by the serpent or Satan through the serpent and she eats from the tree and then gives that tree's fruit to Adam as well. This is after God has found out that they've done this, that they've rebelled against his rule that he gave them. Verse 13 the Bible says, and the Lord God said unto the woman, what is it that thou has done? And the woman said, the serpent beguiled me and I did eat, meaning I was tricked, she said. And the Lord God said unto the serpent, because thou has done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field, upon thy belly shall thou go, and thou dust shall thou eat all the days of thy life. Look at verse number 15, this is what we're going to focus on this morning is verse number 15 and verse number 16. And then God says, and I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head and thou shall bruise his heel. So this is of course a messianic prophecy here, I'm not going to get into this prophecy but this is telling basically a prophecy about how God is going to destroy death among mankind. And verse number 16 is really where we're going to focus, I'm sorry verse number 16 and verse number 17 is where we're going to focus. But we do see that messianic prophecy in verse number 15, meaning the seed of the woman, you know, that's why you see the genealogies in the Bible, you know, something to go back to Adam himself. Look at verse 16, of course Jesus being a man born of that genealogy. The Bible says in verse 16, it says unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. So now he's off of Satan, he is now talking to the woman and then he's going to talk to the man. So what he's saying is things are going to change for you. And this is the first thing that we're going to look at this morning. There's a common thing that God changes with both the man and the woman and we see the first one with the woman in verse 16. Under the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou shall bring forth children and thy desire shall be to thy husband, he shall rule over thee. So first of all he says, you know, this word sorrow, which is going to be the word that we're going to focus on this morning. But notice also in verse number 16 with the woman, he limits her freedom here. He basically says, you know, this is where God puts some more structure into the marriage. Up to this point, we just know that Eve, the wife, was to be a help meet for Adam. You know, she was to be a help for her husband. But here, you know, God implements the structure in the marriage. He literally limits the woman's freedom here by saying, you know, I'm going to put some structure in this marriage because you've done this. Now your husband is going to rule over you. Now this is a concept that should not be missed in the Bible. It's not the focus of the sermon this morning, but let's just look at this for just a minute. Turn to Proverbs chapter 28. There's a concept in the Bible that should be applied, that can be applied to individuals. It can be applied to, you know, kids as individuals. It can be applied to adults as individuals. But it also can be applied to nations. And it's this idea that if you disobey, if you disobey, you know, your freedom will be limited. All right, your freedom will be lost or taken away. And the more you disobey, the more your freedom will be limited, all right? That's an important thing, especially as Americans who claim to want to be free and, you know, we're free and everyone's all about freedom in this country. We ought to learn that as we disobey the Lord, that freedom will be limited. Look at Proverbs 28 in verse number two. This is a universal truth right here, all right? It doesn't mean you have to like it. It's just a universal truth of what is going to happen. Look at Proverbs 28. The Bible says this is applying this concept to nations. It says for the transgression of a land, many are the princes thereof. But by a man of understanding and knowledge, the state thereof shall be prolonged. So the Bible here is saying is that, you know, the moral land transgresses against who? Against God, against his word, against his law. The moral land transgresses the less free he will become. More people will just come in and be in charge of that nation. The same is true down to the individual level, which is exactly what we see happen to Eve here. She disobeyed God and God limits her freedom. God says now your husband will rule over you. All right, go back to Genesis chapter three. That's just a concept, a methodology that we need to understand that's a universal truth. And what you're gonna learn this morning is it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter if you believe the Bible or not. I know everybody here believes the Bible, but it makes no difference to all the people around the world if you believe the Bible or not. These truths are going to happen. They are going to come to pass, period. Look at back to Genesis chapter three. So notice how the word sorrow, back to that word sorrow. That word sorrow is brought up twice when talking to the woman. He says, yes, your husband's gonna rule over you, but he's like, you're gonna have great sorrow. He says sorrow twice. In childbirth and in sorrow, you're gonna have children basically is what he tells the woman. Now look at verse 17. Now we're going to Adam, all right? And to Adam he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife and has eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee saying, thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake, in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. And then he continues more detail in verse 18. He says, thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. So at this point men did not eat animals. Men were vegetarians at this point. They did not eat the animals. So they had to grow, he's saying, you're gonna have to grow your own food now. You're not gonna be able to just go and just eat from the grocery store garden, all right? He's saying, you're gonna have to go and make your own food now. And he's like, it's gonna be sorrowful for you to do this. Look at verse 19, he gets even more detail. He says, in the sweat of thy face, shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out of it was thou taken for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. So there's some detail on death there that we'll talk about in a later sermon. But the point I wanna make is the thing that we're gonna focus on this morning, as far as the fall of man and things that changed, is this word that God implemented for both the woman and the man. And it's this word, sorrow. So God implemented sorrow after Eve and Adam disobeyed him after this fall happened. So what did God do? God basically said to the man, or he said to the woman, we'll start with the woman first. He basically said, in childbirth, you're gonna have sorrow. He's basically saying, in life, you're going to have sorrow. There's going to be suffering, all right? Even if, look, even if they never disobeyed God again, God says, this is what you are going to have now. God implemented, and this is the first point I wanna make today, is God implemented a base level of sorrow here. For the woman, through childbirth, meaning her life. And then basically for the man, he said, your basic needs are going to bring sorrow. You're just survival. Survival, why food? Because that's something you need every day. You need every several hours. He says, just providing that basic survival need is going to bring you sorrow. What is sorrow? Sorrow is deep distress. Sorrow is toil. That's why we see in verse number 19, God uses that sweat of your face. Adam is gonna have to toil through his life for his survival at this point. When before, God provided everything. Eve, even if she never disobeyed the Lord again, is going to have sorrow just going through her life as a married woman who's going to have children and raise her children. God implements this base level of sorrow. So look, that's the first thing you need to understand is that's one thing God changed. He put a base level of sorrow into their lives, period. Now look, sorrow to survive every day from the man's perspective, we really can't relate to that today. But that is a universal historical truth, is that just basic surviving has caused a lot of sorrow throughout mankind's entire history. I mean, we in this time, in this country, we can't relate to this, but look, most people throughout history could. Could relate to that. I mean, look, nobody here, nobody in America knows where food comes from. It comes from Winco or wherever, the grocery store. So there's really not that base level that we feel right now in this country that God implemented, but we'll get to that more in detail later. But you just think about throughout history, think about the pioneers that settled this country that came out west, even recent history like the 1930s. You think about the 1930s, I remember my grandfather, who I was very close to, his entire life, he went off and he fought in World War II, but his life was really defined by the 1930s. And you could see that in who he was even up to just a few years ago when he died. But the point is, his life was defined by that hardship and that toil and that sorrow that they saw in the 1930s. It just, it defined everything about him. You know, even in the, I remember in the 80s, when I was a kid growing up, there was a terrible drought in the Midwest in the 80s. Many people, many people went bankrupt, many people lost their farms. You know, it's just common in my generation to hear about parents and stress and suffering. My wife could tell you stories about just the stress that she remembers her dad going through, you know, during that drought in the 80s where, you know, cattle prices were low, nothing was growing, it wasn't raining. You couldn't find hay for cattle. It was just a terrible time of sorrow trying to just survive, you know, trying to survive. But look, even though we can't relate to that today, many other countries around the world and many people in this world today, they can relate to this base level of sorrow in just everyday life. You say, where did that come from? It came from the fall of man. God implemented it in Genesis chapter three because before they made this decision to rebel against God, this base level of sorrow did not exist. It is something that God added. It is something that God added. Look, you say, well, I don't struggle to put food on my table today, so it doesn't seem to be true for me. Look, just because we are operating outside of this norm today, where you are, where we are, we're operating on blessing when we deserve a curse. Okay? That's the first thing you need to understand. You know, there's too many signs to ignore and I'll show you this later on in the sermon. But look, this is something that we just need to understand as people and that most people don't understand. God, after the fall of man, implemented this base level of sorrow. Why? Just life in general is gonna be sorrowful. All right, this is something that I wish governments understood. I wish governments understood that there's a base level of sorrow that's to be expected because this is where you get governments that come in and try to provide everything for everyone. They try to take sorrow away. It's never gonna work. It will never work because God implemented it. What God implemented, man cannot erase. You think about, you know, I mean, Marxism itself, Karl Marx, one of his biggest, you know, basis cornerstones of his philosophy was that poverty and sorrow and suffering came from capitalism. So we need to come up with these different forms of government like communism and socialism. One of the goals of these types of government, whatever you say, is to take away sorrow. It's to take away poverty. It's to erase it. But in Mark chapter 14 and John chapter 12, Jesus himself literally says, the poor will always be with you. And it's interesting because who he was talking to was Judas Iscariot, was someone who was just a wicked, evil person. But the point is, here's, I'll prove it to you. Let's just do a little thought experiment. Governments, even today, even our own government is trying to erase this base level of sorrow. They're trying to fix it. But here's the thing, you can't undo things that God has implemented. You say, prove it to me. Well, take someone. Let's do a thought experiment. Let's take somebody. Let's take a man. Let's take a man who has two arms and two legs and is altogether, you know, capable. And let's give him everything. Let's tell him, you don't have to go out and till the ground, you don't have to work by the sweat of your face. You don't have to do any of those things. We will provide everything for you. And what will you get? You will have a man who has nothing but sorrow. Because you cannot undo what God has put in place. And the more you try to undo that, the more you try to take the place of what God has put in place, the worse it will become. That's why you see people that have been given everything, handed everything, had everything done for them. They are completely destroyed. And they are nothing but sorrow. Because look, God implemented a base level of sorrow. It's the first thing that he did right after the fall, right after the rebellion. Right after the rebellion against him. Look, here's the thing, folks. Life is a struggle by design, by God's design. You say why? Because after God rebelled against him, God implemented sorrow. That's why. Now look, there's other sources of sorrow in our lives. Other than just this base level of sorrow that God implemented after the rebellion. Turn to 2 Timothy chapter 3. So the first level of sorrow is just this base level that God says, you know what? Living life on this earth is going to be sorrowful for you. Both man and woman. But there's other sources of sorrow. I'm gonna give you two other sources of sorrow this morning. And then we'll look at how we can apply this to our lives. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse number 12. The Bible also tells us that we will have sorrow through tribulation. The Bible says that living a Christian life will cause you sorrow. It will cause others to persecute you. Yay, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Turn to Romans chapter 5. I'm gonna read for you John chapter 16. You turn to Romans chapter 5. John chapter 16 and verse number 33. The Bible says, these things have I spoken unto you that in me you might have peace in the world. You shall have tribulation. But be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. So we get a clue here. You're turning to Romans chapter 5. Jesus says, you're gonna have tribulation in the world. Jesus, and that's good. Look, that's gonna cause you sorrow. Having tribulation in the world. But then Jesus says something strange. He says, but be of good cheer. You're like, what? You're like, I'm supposed to be happy. I'm supposed to be cheerful about the fact that I'm getting persecuted. I'm getting tribulation against people. And they says, I have overcome the world. We start to get a clue here that maybe sorrow is not such a bad thing is our first clue. Look at Romans chapter 5 and verse number 3. The Bible actually explains to us why, especially we shouldn't be sorrowful over this type of thing that could cause us sorrow. Look at Romans 5 verse number 3. Talking about tribulation or persecution, meaning other people coming after you and causing you problems and hurting you because you're a Christian because you are preaching Christ. Look at verse 3 of Romans chapter 5. The Bible says, and not only so, but we glory in tribulations also. Knowing that tribulation worketh patience and patience, experience, and experience, hope. So if you feel sorrowful from tribulation, wait a minute. The Bible says that tribulation has benefits. The Bible says that tribulation will cause you to become patient. What does that mean? It means it will make you tough. It will make you tough. It will make you have the ability to endure it. And after you get the ability to endure it, then you will get experience, meaning you will know how to handle it successfully. You'll have patience and experience. And look, that ultimately ends up in hope, which means you don't have to sorrow anymore because you know the next time it comes that you can handle it after you have patience and experience. So look, you know it's coming. You have the patience for it. You have the experience to deal with it successfully, not let it derail your Christian life. Praise God, it's a blessing at that point because you're gonna be rewarded for it. So that's the second thing that can cause us additional sorrow is just tribulation, persecution from this world, but there's something else. Hopefully you're starting to see the reasons that we experience sorrow in our lives, but here's another one, turn to Proverbs chapter 17. Actually, you turn to Jeremiah chapter 30. Turn to Jeremiah chapter 30. Another thing that is designed to cause us sorrow is sin. Sin, look, there is too many examples of this in the Bible, sorrow is all over the Bible. It is a word that is used dozens and dozens of times in the Bible. But another source of sorrow in our lives is not just this base level of sorrow that God has put in into our lives. It's not just persecution that God says really shouldn't cause us sorrow. Many times it will, but it shouldn't after we get that patience and experience for it. It should really give us hope. But another thing in the last thing, the last category of sorrow in our lives will be sin. As if all that is at the base level of sorrow and sorrow from persecution is not enough, we have to just add more from our own sin. Look at Jeremiah chapter 30. I'm gonna read for you Proverbs 17 verse 21. The Bible says, He that begetteth a fool, doeth it to his sorrow. And the father of a fool hath no joy, saying if you raise a child in this case, that is a fool, is that you're gonna have sorrow. If you don't raise your children according to the Bible, that's gonna cause you added sorrow on top of the base level sorrow of your life. Look at Jeremiah chapter 30 and verse 15. I just love this verse because it really explains in detail this concept that I need to get across to you this morning about sorrow. Look at verse 15. It says, Why cryest thou for thine affliction? These people are in pain, suffering, sorrow, and they're just crying and they're whining about it. And it says thy sorrow is incurable. It's like there's nothing that's gonna take away this sorrow, the Bible is saying. Why? For the multitude of thine iniquity. You see? Because thy sins were increased, I have done these things unto thee. The Bible here is saying is this type of sorrow, this sin sorrow, this iniquity sorrow, it's inescapable. This is a truth whether you believe the Bible or not. The Bible is saying the sorrow from sin is you can't get away from it. And guess what? There's something you need to understand here. Look at that word in Jeremiah chapter 30 in verse number 15. It says thy sins were increased. Here's how it works folks. As your sins increase, your sorrow increases. This is a universal truth. Why? It says I have done these things unto thee. It's a chastisement of God. Sorrow is a control valve that God uses. As we increase our iniquity, as we increase our transgression, he turns up the sorrow. So just by that methodology right there, we understand that we're always gonna have a base level of sorrow. We understand that we shouldn't be sorrowful over persecution. We should instead glory in persecution. We should instead have hope from persecution. But our sin will cause us sorrow. And if we just have more and more and more iniquity, we will have more sorrow. So you say I wanna decrease my sorrow. Well, let's reverse engineer this thing. If you wanna have the least amount of sorrow, have the least amount of iniquity. You're always gonna have a base level of sorrow. But if you want to not just pile it upon yourself, you know, lessen your iniquity. You know, listen to what God's law says. Turn to Ecclesiastes chapter seven. So you see that sorrow is something that God uses to help us. It is something that God turns up and turns down according to whether or not we are listening to what he has told us to do. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter seven. Sorrow is actually very necessary in your life. It's an important thing. And look, it's very good for you. You're like, what? It's like eating your spinach. Think about it that way, or you're a rugula. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter seven in verse number two. Look at what Ecclesiastes chapter seven verse two says. Look what the Bible says here. It is better to go into the house of mourning than to the house of feasting. For that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart. Look what the Bible says. It's better to be sorrowful. You're like, what? You're like, I don't like going to funerals. Think about this, go to a funeral. When you go to a funeral, isn't everyone just like, we put away our differences. Everyone's just like open armed with each other. Everyone's just loving each other no matter what has happened in the past. You go to the house of mourning and people, you know why? It's because of the state of their heart. That's why. Because that's how God uses sorrow. You get a few weeks down the road and everyone starts fighting about the inheritance. That's a different story. But the point is that's what Ecclesiastes chapter seven is saying, it's better to be in the house of mourning than it is the house of feasting. Look at verse three. Why? Sorrow is better than laughter. Look, it may not be what you choose to have but sorrow is better than laughter for by the sadness of the countenance of the heart by sadness of the countenance of the heart is made better. Your heart is made better through sorrow folks. This is why God uses it. This is why God implemented that base level of sorrow on your life and then he uses it as a control valve as your iniquity goes up he increases your sorrow. And then that fixes your heart and you get your iniquity back to where it should be. You're starting to follow the word of God again. God will decrease that sorrow. Sorrow is actually what we need which is why God implemented after the fall of man. Look, you may not wanna hear that today. That sorrow is something that we need. We look at all the instability that we see today. We look at, I mean I look at the state of this country today and I just have to think, that you know sorrow is going to increase especially for our country. But look, let me just bring it back to the point that sorrow when that sorrow does increase that will be a good thing. You say why? Because it will turn the hearts of men, that's why. Just think about, look, let me just break it down to this, when sorrow increases in this country which I guarantee you it will, the gospel will benefit. Think about that. Just think about just like for many of you that remember maybe not the kids here but just think about 9-11. Just think about 9-11. Like people just flock to church. I don't know if you remember that. People just flock to church. People were just getting all, you know, Christian again and talking about God and Jesus all the time and you know but look, what do we see today? People are flocking away. People are flocking away from church today which means if you've figured out this methodology that that valve is gonna open again and sorrow is gonna what? It's going to increase. Look, whether that be economically, whether that be physically, whether that be through war or whatever, you know, I guarantee you that this is going to happen because it's a basic truth of God. Turn to 2 Chronicles chapter 25. Turn to 2 Chronicles chapter 25. Look, we're already seeing signs of this appearing today. We've been seeing signs of this appearing. Maybe people aren't noticing. Clearly people that are leading our country are not noticing these signs but I was thinking about an article that I read years and years and years ago and luckily we have all knowledge available to us today. So I was able to go back and search and find this article and I remember reading it years ago, turns out it was from 2015. And I read this article. Look, signs are already appearing that this is coming today. And I wanna show you, I just wanna read this for you and then I'm gonna give you the explanation. This reporter in this article was asking these questions. He was just, why are we seeing this? Look, it's interesting because he was a secular person noticing something that the Bible has the exact explanation for. So I first wanna read you some snippets from this article and then I'm gonna give you the Bible explanation for it and show you how it fits exactly into this methodology of how God increases our sorrow as our iniquity increases. The article was from 2015, it was from the Atlantic, okay? And the Bible, or not the Bible, the Atlantic, this article, it was titled this and it really popped out at me at this time which is why I think I read it. But it was from June 2nd, 2015 and the title of the article was this. Why has America stopped winning wars? And I was gonna read you a couple paragraphs from this article but he's asking this question. He's like, why? This is weird and it is weird from a secular perspective. It's actually nearly impossible to explain from a secular perspective. Let me read you a couple paragraphs. Why does the United States struggle in war? How can it resolve a failing conflict? Can America return to victory? This is in 2015. Today, these are critical questions because we live in an age of unwinnable conflicts where decisive triumph has proven to be a pipe dream. Now I'm commenting now. We have the most powerful military in the world by 20 times over. The amount of money we've spent on the military. We have more money, we have more technology, everything. It's unexplainable. He's saying, why aren't we winning wars? What's happening here? He continues in the article. On June 5th, 1944, the day before D-Day, US General George S. Patton strode onto a makeshift stage in southern England to address thousands of American soldiers. Listen to this. Americans play to win all the time, said Patton. That's why Americans have never lost, nor will ever lose a war. For the very idea of losing is hateful to an American. Now, you may have that red-blooded American inside you that's kind of like, yeah! But here's the thing. Patton clearly was not a prophet. He was clearly wrong. Let me continue the article. It was the golden age of American combat. Patton could look back on a century of US victories in major wars against Mexico, the Confederacy, Spain, Germany, and the glorious era was about to reach its pinnacle. He said, looking ahead to D-Day, quote, and I won't read the whole quote because I have to bleep part of it out. OK, he said, he's talking about the day before D-Day. He says, I actually pity those poor, blankety blanks we're going up against. He said, as World War II was a testament to the valor-stud splendor of American warfare, the reason that this report struggles, the report goes on to just continue to talk about different wars. We literally fought a war in Vietnam where we literally did not lose a single battle. But we lost the war. Like, how is that even possible? Second Chronicles chapter 25 explains what this article could never come up with the answer about. We were talking about Amaziah last week. We're talking about how Amaziah went out and he was building his army. He had 300,000 men in Judah. And he went out for some insurance and he bought 100,000 mercenaries from the northern kingdom of Israel. And the man of God came to him and said, don't you do that. You send those 100,000 home. I don't care what it costs you. I don't care what that money, you know, what that does to you that you're out that money. And here's the reason he gives why. He says, look, he basically tells him the Lord is not gonna be with you if you have those 100,000 with you. So you either choose those 100,000 mercenaries or you choose the Lord. A secular military person would choose the 100,000. But look at verse number 20, verse number eight of Second Chronicles, chapter 25. But if thou wilt go, do it. Be strong for the battle. God shall make thee fall before the enemy. For God hath power to help and to cast down. See, it is God that creates victory. So we ought to take notice in this country that we've been 70 years plus without a decisive victory in a war. That's something that we should notice. That's something that we should pay attention to. Turn to Psalm chapter 34. Because until we learn, until we learn that control valve will continue to open. And that sorrow will continue to increase. Because look, this is something that if you don't notice it, it is going to get worse and worse and worse. As Jeremiah chapter 30 shows us. And guess what? As sorrow increases, more and more men's hearts will turn back to the Lord. This is how it works. It's a feedback loop. It's a feedback loop. From an engineering perspective, you have something that, no, we haven't reached our point yet. We haven't reached our goal yet. So we just continue opening the sorrow. Continue opening the sorrow. And as soon as this starts to rise and then we reach the point, the sorrow will come back down again. Look at Psalm chapter 34 in verse number 18. The Bible says the Lord is nigh, meaning close, meaning the Lord is close. The Lord is with unto them that are of a broken heart and save as such as be of a contrite spirit. The Bible says when that sorrow increases, as God designed it and men's hearts get right, at that point, God will become close to them again. The 70 year captivity is a perfect example of this. God had to send them into captivity for 70 years, but he told them at the beginning. He's like, but no, if you come back and if you get right, he's like, I will bring you back. And after 70 years, that's exactly what he did. He brought them back. So look, if you have sorrow in your life, if you see sorrow coming around you, just don't worry, it's part of the plan. It's part of the plan. But look, here's what I see things today. Here's why I know this is coming. Here's why I know that this is something that is going to be dealt with in this country because things are out of balance today. That's why. I look at the world and then I look at the Bible. I look at our country and then I look at the Bible. I look at people, individuals out soul winning and I can literally see things getting less receptive year after year and then I look at the Bible and I know what God's solution to that is gonna be is that sorrow is in, is going to increase. That sorrow is gonna increase. We mock him. We turn on him. We despise his word. Things are out of balance today because there's really no sorrow here. There's really no sorrow here. Look, Americans today, they don't toil in the ground. They don't toil in the ground. They toil at Costco. You know, Americans today, you know, look, Americans today have no concept of war. You say, what do you mean? I was in the military or I know somebody that served. Look, no American today has any concept of war. No American today has any concept of a foreign army marching into their city, being invaded, having their city bombed. Look, many Europeans cannot say this. You know, many people around the world cannot say this. But look, here's the thing, folks. There is no escaping biblical truth. Because just because there is no sorrow now, this shows us, because we have this imbalance today, it shows us the way things are going to go. Look, we have no concept of war, but we export war. We export war to other places. You know, this is where, this idea of sorrow coming in after people increase iniquity, this is where the pagan idea of karma came from. Because people just observe this happening. People just observe people doing terrible things and then sorrow comes upon them. It's where this idea, it's just where this secular, you know, phrase of what comes around goes around. Because what they see is people that turn away from the Bible, which is truth and goodness in every possible way as they turn away from that. Sorrow increases on individual nation on a world level. It's a universal truth that even pagans have noticed. That even secular people have noticed. And it's going to happen. The control valve is opening. I can guarantee you that for our country today. Sorrow is coming. How do I know? Because that's how God uses it. That's what it was designed for. Since the fall of man. Why? For our own good. That's why. For our own good. So here's some individual application for you this morning. Do some sorrow accounting in your life this morning. Take account of your sorrow. Just look at yourself as an individual this morning and just remember these three things that I just brought up. Just think about what are you sorrowful for this morning? What are you sorrowful for in your life this morning? Is it that providing is hard, that work is hard, that finances are hard, that raising children is hard, that just, look, but here's the thing. That's not abnormal. Because that's the base level of sorrow that God implemented on life for us. That's life after the fall. There is going to be sorrow. So look, if you did some accounting of all your sorrow in your life right now, and look, you likely have sorrow. Because there's a base level of sorrow just in life in general. And it all fell into life in general. You're doing well. But now just think about the second one. Is there people causing you sorrow? Because of what you believe? Because of what you preach? Maybe somebody slammed the door in my face and said some mean things to me when I was out soul winning? Does that cause me? I mean that shouldn't cause you sorrow. I mean that's pretty, but you should be a veteran. Everybody in this church, I'm sure that doesn't cause sorrow too. But the point is, just rejoice in those things. If you're being persecuted for your Christian life for the cause of Christ, rejoice in those things because look, that's life. That's Christian life after the fall. So that base level of sorrow is life after the fall. Being persecuted, that's Christian life after the fall. But now how about this one? You say, well, I still got some sorrow that you haven't covered in those first two. What about this one? How about sin? Are you dealing with sorrow in your life because of sin, things that you shouldn't be doing because of what the Bible calls, you know, iniquity? You know, the answer to that is hey, use that sorrow and quit doing what you're doing. This is where modern day psychology misses the bus on this one. This is where they'll never catch up to the Bible on this one. As somebody's depressed and they give them a pill. As somebody's down and they just like, oh, you know, they got all this sorrow and just all this depression and they just, you know, give them this pill and they don't realize that, hey, a lot of sorrow that people have, look, not all sorrow, but a lot of people, a lot of sorrow that people have is self-inflicted. You say, I have wounds without cause and all my relationships are a mess and my marriage is a mess and my health is falling apart, but guess what? Let sorrow teach you. You know, here's the funny thing about Ephesians chapter four where the Bible says, you know, we have prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers. Here's the interesting thing about sorrow. To that person, to that man or that woman that says, you know what, nobody can tell me anything. Sorrow is the teacher that you cannot escape. Sorrow is the teacher that, sorrow is your final teacher. When you've thrown off every other teacher, sorrow will continue, that's why sorrow is such a great thing, because it just, it will continue to teach you whether you wanna be taught or not. And if you don't wanna be taught and you've thrown off every other teacher in your life, you've thrown off every authority in your life, that sorrow's gonna teach you even harder. It's such a great design, this idea of sorrow. Turn to Revelation chapter 21. You say, thanks a lot pastor, this is all very depressing. Thanks for the great message, you know, and how I'm gonna be sorrowful and how I should enjoy that, you know, in my life. But look folks, you know, these things have I spoken unto you that you should not be offended. You know, you wanna church is gonna just tell you that it's the greatest things and they just all good news all the time. There's plenty of those all over the place. You know, but here's another interesting thing as we just wrap things up on sorrow this morning. Hopefully you understand this methodology that God is using. Look, God was dealing with rebellion. God was dealing with rebellion. He's like, what am I going to do about this? And it was pretty brilliant what he did. He put in this situation of sorrow to help us not be rebellious. To help us, look, that base level is there, so we always have that reminder. We always have that reminder, you say, I'm never gonna sin again in my life, okay, you're a liar, but the point is, you're still gonna have sorrow because God put it there as a constant reminder to keep ourselves in check. But it's interesting because just a couple pages into the Bible, we get this idea of sorrow introduced to us. We get this idea that like, everything's just gonna be sorrowful now. If you just reject and continue to rebel, things are gonna be way more sorrowful than they could be for you. But it's interesting because a couple pages into the Bible, we see sorrow implemented. But a couple pages before the Bible ends, are you at Revelation chapter 21? Look at verse number four. God knows how to begin and end a book, I'll tell you that. I mean, God knows how to begin and end a story in a perfectly poetic way. Look at Revelation chapter 20 and verse number four. The Bible says, God says, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death, look at this, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall be any more pain for the former things are passed away. Say, what is heaven gonna be like? Well, the best description of heaven that I can give is that there's gonna be no base level sorrow. There will be no base level sorrow. God is taking that away. There will be no sorrow from persecution and there will be no sorrow from iniquity because we will no longer have this sinful flesh. There will be no more chastisement from God. It's all part of the plan. But this plan in Revelation chapter 21 is not yet. So look, we unfortunately right now need sorrow in our lives. Mankind proves this over and over again. Especially in our country, I pay extra attention to this. Look, you should really pay attention to dichotomies that you see because this is a dichotomy. This is a dichotomy. You see, like, this is how God's plan works and I'm seeing great blessings still yet we should have great sorrow. Well, the Bible is not untrue for us. The Bible is true, so this shows us what is happening and why we see this dichotomy and we can literally see the future because of this truth. It gives us a view of what is coming. So look, all the might, all the money, all the power, all the technology, it can't change the Bible's truth. And again, you don't have to believe the Bible for it to be true. So sorrow will increase, especially in this nation, for what we are, for our iniquities. But here's the thing. For us, it's going to be a good thing because what is the main thing? The main thing is the gospel and that's how important we are as Bible-believing, soul-winning Christians is that as God turns up this sorrow valve, we should actually be praying for it, actually because the more sorrow that more men see and feel in their hearts, the more people that will be receptive when we bring the gospel to them because this is how God uses it and why he uses it. So that's why we see sorrow in our lives, folks. That's why we're gonna continue to see sorrow in this nation. That is why God implemented it in the first place. It's for our own good. Ultimately, to drive men's hearts towards God's law and salvation. You say God was just, he wasn't punishing us here. He was doing this for our own good so that we could be saved and end up in heaven with him and all the other people that believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.