The sermon titled 'Understanding the Alternative' addresses the idea that secular views offer an alternative to the teachings of the Bible, which is seen by some as not being the authoritative word of God. The speaker argues that these secular promises are impossible to fulfill and that they lead to a life centered around oneself instead of God, which ultimately results in dissatisfaction. By examining Psalms 1 and 2, the speaker illustrates the contrast between a life guided by God's word and one that seeks to break free from it. The sermon emphasizes the importance of recognizing God's authorship of the Bible, suggesting that the limitations imposed by scripture are meant to focus us on the best things in life. The speaker identifies three major flaws in secular promises: disobedience to God, impossibility of achieving promised outcomes, and false assumptions about reality. The sermon concludes by encouraging trust in God and His word as the path to true happiness and fulfillment.

The title of this message is Understanding the Alternative. Young ladies, you're being offered an alternative to the things that we've been talking about, and I want you to understand that this whole session is designed you to help what is being sold to you. Believe me, it's being sold to you all day, every day. I want to convince you that the people who don't hold the Bible to be the Word of God, meaning they don't actually think that the Bible is the revelation of truth from God in heaven. That's what I think it is, but they don't think it's that.

Because they don't think it's that. It's that they don't think it's authoritative and they don't think that anyone has a right to use the words of the Bible to say you should do this and you shouldn't do that. They don't think it's authoritative because they don't think it's truth from heaven. These people are selling you an alternative to what the Bible teaches but that what they're selling is actually impossible and so you can never actually get what they're promising. So that's the thesis That's what I'm setting out to try to prove to you, is that people who don't hold the Bible as being written by God, and so it's authoritative, the Bible has the right to tell us what we should do, what we shouldn't do.

Those people who don't embrace that are actually selling something that's impossible. And so you'll never get what's promised. They make all sorts of promises to you. You will never get those promised things. And the sad thing is it's decades in, decades down that path.

When you find out I've been sold promises that will never be delivered. It's so sad trying to hold you back from that. Why do they want to sell you an alternative? Because they have a view of life and a view of the world that doesn't have the God of the Bible at the center of it. And when God isn't the center, we always are.

So those are your options, ladies. A world with the God of the Bible at the center of it, or a world where you're the center of it. It sounds fun to be the center of the world, but actually it's miserable. Find that out soon enough. When we are the center of the world, any limitation is viewed as unacceptable.

You cannot impose any limitation on me because I am the center of the world. I cannot be limited. And so we have to decide, is God actually the author of the Bible? If he isn't, then all the limitations that we find in the Bible are actually just human inventions. I really, I want to raise the stakes here.

It really, the stakes are this high. If God didn't write the Bible, then the limitations imposed upon me, there are so many limitations imposed upon me in that book are just human inventions and I'm free to ignore them. But if God is the author of the Bible, then the limitations in the Bible, limitations for any of us, limitations for all of us, I'm the head of a household, and yet I have so many limitations imposed on me by Scripture. I am the leader in a church. Believe me, that is not unlimited in scope.

I have so many limitations on me as a leader of the church imposed on me by the Bible. So this is not, Taylor said this in the last session, I'm so glad he said it. This is not unique to women in any way. The Bible has limitations on every kind of person because it's God it's the Bible is claiming to be God showing us how he's designed things and God is claiming the right in his word to limit us in different areas of our life If God is the author of the Bible, then the limitations in the Bible are what the Bible says they are. And the Bible says that those limitations are not for holding us back from good things.

So what does the Bible say about its own limitations? It says, it's not from holding you back from good things. It is to preserve us for and focus us on the best things. So the Bible explains its own limitations And it claims that it is limiting all of us in various areas of our lives to preserve us for and Focus us on the very best things. Oh, yeah says who oh, yeah says God He knows the best things better than we know the best things.

And he's gracious to give us those good things. I forgot to bring my Bible. That's bad. I'm going to switch the equipment. If you have a Bible, turn to Psalm 1 and 2.

I'm gonna give you the first three verses of Psalm 1. I'm going to give you the first three verses of Psalm 2 and I'm going to tell you that they're exact opposites because they're exact opposites. So Psalm 1, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season whose leaf also shall not wither and whatever he does shall prosper. You've got a great contrast here.

You have someone who refuses to walk in the advice of ungodly people. And they won't stand around consulting with sinners. And they won't sit down and join in the scorn of scornful people. But instead of that, they delight in the law of the Lord and they meditate on God's Word, God's Law, God's Word day and night. So it's a daily part of their life and Psalm 1 says they're like a tree planted by a river of water.

The roots go down and even in dry seasons its leaf doesn't wither and it bears fruit when it's supposed to bear fruit. That's Psalm 1. Psalm 2. Why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing. The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying, Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us.

It's a human plot. It's a human plot to throw off all government. Let's break the chains of the Lord and his anointed Who was the anointed? That's Jesus later in the psalm is going to say kiss the Sun Go go and embrace the Sun Messiah means anointed this is actually about God and his son and how they have a right to rule but how the foolish people say let's break the chains because God's limitations which he's given us to preserve us for and focus us on the best things they're saying are chains. And I'm saying, this is what the people who are selling you an alternative are saying.

Daughters, this is the state of things. There are those who embrace Psalm 1, the word of God should be my meditation every day and that will make me like a tree planted on a riverbank and my leaves will never wither and I'll be fruitful and those people reject Psalm 2 that they don't want to break the chains they want to actually embrace God's limitations because they see the wisdom in the limitations And then there are the people who are the reverse of that who embrace Psalm 2 and they can't wait to tell everyone, let's break the chains. Let's throw off all the limitations. And they reject Psalm 1. They say, no, the Word of God actually isn't that.

It's claiming to be the Word of God, but it isn't the Word of God, and it's actually not what will sustain me in a happy life. Those are exact opposites, and those two can never be reconciled. And so don't think that there will ever be peace made there. That's impossible because they're exact opposites. What is the alternative that those who want to break the chains are selling you.

Those limitations will only waste your gifts. You're such a gifted person and you're about to throw it all away by accepting these limitations. That's what they say. You can do it all and you can have it all is what they say. So go for it all.

They say that you can ignore what the Bible says, you can break those chains and do everything that a man can do and still have a great family. So you sacrifice nothing and get everything. This is what they're selling, This is why I'm saying it's a promise that can never be delivered on please don't spend 20 30 40 years until you find out wait None of these promises came to fruition They They say that you can do everything and sacrifice nothing. What's the problem with that? There are three problems with that.

I want to give you the fatal flaws of what they're selling. Number one, if God is actually the author of the Bible, and I'm betting my life that God is actually the author of the Bible and I'm telling you, pleading with you to bet your life too. Then it is disobedience to the God who made us and has spoken so clearly to us in his word. So the first and worst problem is it's disobedience to the God of all things. We're made to bear his image and live to his honor and it's just outright disobedience to clear things that he said to us in his word.

If you believe that God is actually the author of the Bible, then you must embrace that he knows better than you. I've learned over 56 years, if there's one thing that's true, it's that God knows better than me and the things in his Word are so much more wise than anything that has ever come out of my head, and that he has the right to govern me. He knows best and he has the right to govern me. So that's number one. If God is actually the author of the Bible, then it's disobedience to God.

Number two, what they are saying can be demonstrated to be simply not true. Demonstrated. Be simply not true. It could be demonstrated to be false. It is actually impossible to engage in both everything that a man can do outside the home for a significant portion of the day give the best and the most of your day to this other thing and also cultivate a family life that is like the family life of a godly woman who is pointing all her gifts at building that home and giving the best and the most of her time to building that home.

You cannot produce the same thing. It is impossible. In other words, if you attempt something as a full-time job, Okay, you point all your gifts at it and you give it the best of your time and the most of your time and I attempt the same thing as a part-time job with my so-called leftover hours. We will get very, very different results. Your results will smoke my results.

Your results will be so much better than my results because you're pointing all your gifts at that thing and giving it the best and the most of your time and I'm only giving it the leftovers. The tiredest portion of the day when I've pointed my gifts at something else for the best hours of the day. We cannot produce the same thing. God actually wants homes that have all the power of the gifts that he has given women, along with the focus of her best hours. God wants homes that are built by all the powers of the gifts that he's given this woman along with the focus of the best and the most of those hours.

So the home building gets the gifts and the home building gets the best and the most of the hours. God wants homes that are built by that. I've seen lots of both kinds of homes. So I know what's being sold as the alternative and I know what the Bible is calling us to and I've observed lots of both those kinds of homes and they aren't remotely the same how could they be. Taylor just said that in his message.

How could they be? And the answer is they can't be. So that's two. What they are saying can be demonstrated to be simply not true. These promises are being made, but they could never be kept.

It's not possible. Number three. Finally, what they're promising is based on assumptions that aren't true at all. Meaning, they're assuming that certain things are a reality and they're drawing conclusions from that. But the things that they're saying these are realities, they're wrong about it.

They're not actually realities and so of course they draw the wrong conclusions because they started by saying these things are real when they're not real at all. What they're promising is based on assumptions that aren't true at all. It isn't true that a woman's gifts are wasted by focusing on homebuilding. That's not true. So they're saying, oh, don't waste your gifts by limiting yourself in this way But that whole premise is wrong that isn't the reality your gifts aren't wasted by pointing it at home-building You see they're acquainting they're equating equalling home-building with housekeeping You see, they're equating, equalling home building with housekeeping.

So if what the Bible was calling us to was just housekeeping, then you can make a great argument that your gifts are wasted. But that's not the reality. That's not what the Bible is calling you to. It's calling you to home building, not just to be the maid. I can pay a maid to come in and do a little tidying up but that's not that's not the same thing they're envisioning gifts wasted with you being the maid okay but you're not being called to be the maid You're called to be this full set of things that I laid out before you yesterday.

Your gifts won't be wasted at all. They'll actually be put to their best use. Your gifts can never be put to a better use than to point them at home building. So not only will they not be wasted, the opposite is actually true, they'll be put to their best use. And it isn't true that you'll be happier trying to do it all and have it all.

So that's really what's being promised. That's really what's being sold to you. You'll be happier. And that's not true. The cruel thing about it is that chasing happiness and satisfaction in that way, You'll actually miss the sweetest happiness and satisfaction.

What you're chasing, you'll actually be withholding yourself from. You'll be chasing happiness and satisfaction by buying what they're selling, and you'll actually be at the same time unwittingly holding yourself back from happiness and satisfaction. In trying to have both, In trying to have both, you'll miss the opportunity to build the kind of home that God wants us to have and the happiness and satisfaction that comes from building that. When a woman builds a biblical home which just means a happy, healthy, flourishing, God-centered, ministering, influential home, in building that. There's so much happiness and satisfaction of that.

And if you want to just go to time splitting, but the home part of it gets the least and the worst of the time. You don't get that output, and so you're holding yourself back from the happiness and satisfaction of having pointed your gifts at that and given it the best and then successfully building that. Oh daughters, trust in the Lord. That's really what we've come here to say, trust in the Lord, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don't lean on your own understanding.

But Give yourself to what God has said in his word, and he will direct your paths into the sweetest places. So we all have to bet our lives. We have one life to bet. You have to bet your life. I'm saying, don't hedge your bets.

Don't split up your bets. Believe that God is actually the author of the Bible, that he's real, that Jesus is alive, the grave is empty. You can know him walk with him, and you can obey him in his word, and that that will actually be the best life. And So you have to place your bets. And I placed my bet on those things a long time ago.

Janet's getting ready to come and actually talk about this. I asked her to because I've been hearing her say, we're done with homeschooling now. We have one of six still living at home. We have adult children as we're at the far end of this and I've been hearing her say I'm so glad we decided the things we decided and stuck with it along the way. So and and that applies not just to wives and mothers, that applies to us all.

I came to know the Lord, I think at 10 years, I started being seriously discipled in my teen years and promises were made to me about the faith and they've they're they've all over delivered and the promises that were made to me to get me to desire to want to know Jesus and walk with Jesus, they've all come true. That means my life's easy all the time. I didn't say that. That's not what I said, and that's not what I meant. But the promise of knowing Jesus, walking with Jesus, and even what that means when things are very difficult in life, all those promises have come true.

Okay, so I'm here to stand before you to say the Bible has more than delivered on its promises to me. The people who told me about what it would be like to be in the faith, God has more than delivered on those promises to me and you can trust him and you should bet everything that the Bible is really God telling us the things that we need to know. God I pray that you would give our daughters power to believe these things, that your spirit would be here, invisibly inclining them to desire to know you, to throw yourself on the mercies of Jesus Christ, and then to walk with you every day. Pray that decades from now they would be able to say what I've just said the things of the the promises that were made to me in Scripture that were made to me by gospel preachers they didn't tell me the half Thank you God for making me your own. Pray this in Jesus' name, amen.