Pastor Steve Byrens

Matthew 16:18-19 (NLT), “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you lose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

LIFEPOINT:  When we go against God’s design, we are going against His nature. It is not good to go against the nature of God!

Last week we looked at Babylon’s attack on God’s design for marriage, family, and sexuality. We see an example in the popular phrase “Love is Love,” which really means “If God is love, then no love can be sinful.” This morning we’re going to focus on God’s design for the church and the lie that “the God of the Bible is hateful and misogynistic.”  This lie implies that God’s Laws are degrading to women and bigoted toward sexual minorities. Therefore, we can’t trust the Bible or the authority structures that it supports.

When we make ourselves the final judges over God and His Word we “reject the truth about God for a lie!” Through this destructive practice we see, not only individuals, but whole churches and denominations rejecting the foundational building blocks of God’s design. Instead of trusting the Scriptures, they have allowed the spirit of Babylon to shape their view of God, His Word, and the institutions He’s ordained like marriage, family, and the church.

Through today’s study we look at how God’s own character and nature are behind His design of this world and the authority structures that govern it. We’ll discover that these structures are not random rules pulled out of thin air. They are instead a reflection of His loving care. This understanding leads us to an important truth: When we go against God’s design, we are going against His nature. It is not good to go against the nature of God!

In His Service,
Pastor Steve

LIFEPOINT:  When we go against God’s design, we are going against His nature. It is not good to go against the nature of God!

Psalm 19:1-4a (NLT), “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. 3 They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. 4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”


Deuteronomy 6:4 (NIV), “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

2 Corinthians 13:14 (NLT), “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

The Westminster Confession: “In the unity of the Godhead there be three Persons of one substance, power, and eternity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. The Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son.”

God exists as One God, in three persons. Within the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are in perfect relationship with each other. There is perfect authority, submission, unity, love, and oneness that exists between them.y

The three foundational structures of authority from God lead to human flourishing and well-being because they come directly from the nature and character of God. 

Genesis 2:24b (NLT), “a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.”


John 10:30 (NLT), “The Father and I are one.”


Matthew 16:16-19 (NLT), “Then He (Jesus) asked them, “But who do you say I am?”Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” 17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Ephesians 5:22-24 (NLT), “For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. 24 As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.”

Ephesians 5:25-30 (NLT), “For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her “Christ gave up his life for her 26 to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. 27 He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. 28 In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. 29 No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. 30 And we are members of his body. 31 As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” 32 This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. 33 So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”

• Husbands: We are called to love and serve our wives by using your spiritual authority in the same way that Christ loved and served the church.
• Wives: You are called to respect your husbands by submitting to their spiritual leadership in the home in the same way that Christ submits to the Father.

Switching our focus to the church, we find the same types of cultural attacks on God’s design: 
Titus 1:5-6 (NLT), “I left you on the island of Crete so you could complete our work there and appoint elders in each town as I instructed you. 6 An elder must live a blameless life. He must be faithful to his wife, and his children must be believers who don’t have a reputation for being wild or rebellious.”

Acts 20:28 (NLT), ““So guard yourselves and God’s people. Feed and shepherd God’s flock—his church, purchased with his own blood—over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as leaders.”

Hebrews 13:17 (NLT), “ Obey your spiritual leaders, and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for your benefit.”

Because Babylon is built on pride and rebellion it hates this design. But God’s Kingdom is built on humility and obedience. The first leads to death and destruction. The second to life and human flourishing.

Ephesians 4:11-16 (NLT), “Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love!”

When a culture is built upon these types of families and churches, it brings the very presence of the Kingdom of heaven here to earth! But when it trades “the truth about God for a lie,” it brings the chaos and destruction of hell here to earth!  

LIFEPOINT: When we go against God’s design, we are going against His nature. It is not good to go against the nature of God!