0:00:00 – (Steve Gray): Hey, have you ever asked yourself the question, why am I here on Earth? Why was I born? Was I just born to live my life out and get a job and then die and go to heaven? Well, I’m going to answer that for you on the next More Faith More Life podcast.

0:00:14 – (Steve Gray): You were made for more than the status quo. I’m Pastor Steve Gray and this is the More Faith, More Life podcast. This podcast is for Christians with an ambitious heart who want to be more for their family, do more with their career, and see more of God’s promises in their life. I’ve spent many years as a worship artist, minister, non-profit leader, bold truth speaker, and most importantly, father and spouse.

0:00:39 – (Steve Gray): When I was in my early 40s, I was craving more. More from God and more from life. I’d done everything I was supposed to do. My life was good, but it wasn’t good enough.

0:00:50 – (Steve Gray): So I spent the following years diving

0:00:52 – (Steve Gray): into the Word of God and, and searching for the biblical principles that would bring me closer to God and help my purpose and life flourish. That’s what I want to share with you. In every episode, you’ll get practical tools based on real life experiences that you can put into action to redefine your faith and ultimately your life. So if you’re ready to do more, subscribe to More Faith, More Life and hear an unfiltered biblical truth every week.

0:01:21 – (Steve Gray): It’s time to be and experience more.

0:01:26 – (Steve Gray): Hello everyone, and welcome to another More Faith, More Life podcast, your voice of revival. Today we’re going to talk about some things I’m just going to guess you’ve never heard before. And it’s not that it’s not available, it’s not that it’s secret information. It’s just people haven’t never thought of these things. And so, you know, if it were time, you know, again, they used to say when I was growing up, you turn on the television and the guy would say, call your friends and tell them to turn to this channel now. And I’d say, you need to call your friends if you have any, if you got some friends or relatives or you’re married or whatever to get together. But nobody would probably do it. They just listened to me say it.

0:02:07 – (Steve Gray): But that’s how important this is because I’m going to really help you with something. And the Bible talks about get wisdom, get revelation, and get understanding. And if you don’t understand what I’m about to tell you, never heard it before, I’m going to tell you, you can go to church your whole life, never hear this Very scriptural, very true. And it just gives you understanding. Okay? So let me get going on it and see if I’m right instead of wasting time trying to convince you to keep listening. All right?

0:02:35 – (Steve Gray): So anyway, we go to the age old question, why am I here? Why am I here on Earth? Why are you here on Earth? And just an interesting question too. Like for instance, we know the Bible teaches us we’re not supposed to lie. Okay? You can’t lie. But really think about it. Why does God care whether I lie? I’m not lying about him, I’m not lying to him, I’m lying to somebody else or somebody’s lying to me. And just think about, like, why? Why does he care? What’s that got to do with him?

0:03:09 – (Steve Gray): Couldn’t I just tell a lie and just leave me alone? That’s not going to bother you any. And so people just don’t think like that. And so they don’t think clearly enough to say, why am I here? And find a scriptural pattern of why you are here on earth and what God wants to do through you in everybody. Cause everybody’s here for the same reason, I’m going to tell you that. But we express that reason in variety of ways, okay?

0:03:37 – (Steve Gray): So if you’ve ever wondered, what’s the purpose? Why am I here on earth? What am I supposed to be doing? Who am I supposed to be? You know, and all the things that you’re supposed to become in God and go like, and you think about like, okay, I don’t know why God cares, but I guess I’ll try to be holy if I can. All right, so here’s the next thing I’m going to tell you just as opening with that. So here you are on Earth, okay? Now I’m going to tell you something.

0:04:02 – (Steve Gray): You being here on earth right now and your ancestors and all the way back to Adam and Eve, all the people that wherever, wherever were you being here. Humanity created in the image of God on earth absolutely makes no sense. There’s absolutely no reason for this to happen. It makes no sense. And I’m going to explain it to you and you’re going to see it too. And so let’s back up now. It said Adam and Eve, but let’s go even before that to Lucifer in heaven.

0:04:33 – (Steve Gray): And, you know, he was over one third of the angels. Probably we would call him an archangel. Most people, you believe read some Old Testament scriptures. Looks like he was beautiful. Some people believe he was the ministry, had the ministry, the music ministry, but I don’t know. I know that Scripture. But whether it is true or not. But anyway. Powerful. One third of the angels were under his command.

0:04:55 – (Steve Gray): And he leads a rebellion out of pride and says, I will exalt myself. I will be like God, or I’m going to be God now. I’m taking over. And so he tries and he convinces one third of the angels to believe in him, okay. And to stop believing in God’s plan. And so God doesn’t have. He isn’t going to have it, is he? And so what does he do? Here’s his pattern. Cause it’s going to follow this pattern. He casts Lucifer and one third of the angels out of heaven.

0:05:24 – (Steve Gray): Got it? And where do they go? They go to what we now call the earth. They go to their earthbound. Now he comes and becomes the God of this world, it says. And he sets up his kingdom on the earth. All right. I have a theory. I can’t scientifically prove it, and I can’t even really scripturally prove it. I. I just want to get this unity. Cause I’ve heard people just deny. I’ve had some Christians deny that there were ever dinosaurs on the Earth. That it’s all conspiracy. There were no dinosaur. The Christians saying there were no dinosaurs. Well, I’m not going to go for that. I went to the museums. I’ve seen these giant bone things. And I don’t think conspiracy people went and made all these bones and scattered them all over the world so they could just fool me, okay? So I believe there are dinosaurs.

0:06:14 – (Steve Gray): Monstrous. They’re really monstrous beings. Right? Huge monstrous beings that roam the earth. Now, my opinion is that we don’t want to put it in a time period when Lucifer, who became Satan, who’s the devil, came. He brought devilish, Satanic, ugly things. And monstrous things were happening here. And I don’t put a time period on it. Like the seventh day, seven days, God, six days. God created the Earth. And the seventh day.

0:06:46 – (Steve Gray): Yeah. But between those, a day couldn’t be a thousand years, but a day could be whatever period it wants to be. That between those times when God happened and did things, then there was even before he, you know, the time when he created the Earth and all this monstrous things going on. And then he created humanity and started going through the cycle of creating man in his own image. Could have been a long, long period where Lucifer, who became the devil, Satan, was roaming the earth. It was ugly, it was monstrous, and all those things. And then they died away.

0:07:24 – (Steve Gray): Now we come and on the Earth, where is Satan, the enemy of God? The worst enemy of God, the accuser of the brethren. The accuser of God describes it. He steals, he kills, he destroys, he lies, and he’s the enemy of God. And even the Bible says, the devil roams your enemy. The devil, your enemy, roams like a lion seeking someone to devour your enemy. Okay, so here we have this picture of earth, and Satan is here. His kingdom is here.

0:08:01 – (Steve Gray): Maybe I can’t prove it. Maybe I’m all wrong, you know, but just, I’m trying to help people understand that if they believe there were dinosaurs, how do they fit into this picture? And that the Bible is not the book of history of the world or the history of everything. It’s the history of the man Adam and his wife. It’s the story of Adam and Eve and their family and how God created these two in his image and.

0:08:26 – (Steve Gray): And the family of Adam. Okay, so that’s where we begin when we study us. So here we have it. Lucifer, who becomes Satan. The devil is cast out. He forms his devious, ugly, destroying kingdom here on earth. Now, God wants to create a man and a woman in his own image. And he figures it out and he says, well, where do you think I ought to put him? And somebody says, maybe an angel suggested it, you know.

0:08:54 – (Steve Gray): Well, I got an idea. Why don’t you create a man and a woman and humanity in your own image and, hey, put them right down there, right in the territory of where your enemy, the devil, is. Put them right there and at the same time and build this beautiful garden. But in the garden put the tree that they can’t eat of it. And if they eat of it, they’re going to die. Okay. Hey, what an idea. So that makes no sense.

0:09:21 – (Steve Gray): I’ve had people tell me some crazy things about that. So I’d say, like, why are we here? And, you know, and then what’s the. And they’d say, well, you’re here, but your sins are going to be forgiven. And if you die, you go to heaven, and God wants you in heaven. Why does God want me in heaven? And one guy told me, well, the reason God wants you in heaven is he’s lonely. He’s lonely and he wants to have you in heaven. And I stopped right there. I said, what are you talking about?

0:09:47 – (Steve Gray): You mean to tell me God’s lonely for me to be in heaven, but then why didn’t he just create me there in the first place? Why put me, you, us, down here in the devil’s territory where people can make mistakes and people can go to heaven? But guess what? People can go to hell too. Be down here. If he loves us so much, why put us down here in this enemy’s territory? Why? Just. Just put me someplace safe. Put me where the angels are. The angels don’t have to go through this. The angels don’t have to fight spiritual powers and have the idea, like, oh, what if I sin? What if I mess up? Oh, I might end up in hell. I better try to repent so that I go to heaven when I die. And all of a sudden I go, well, if you wanted us in heaven, put us there in the first place. I know you don’t have. I know you have other creatures there that got seven eyes and wings and all kinds of stuff up there.

0:10:43 – (Steve Gray): Why? And so it doesn’t make any sense. If God loves us so much, why would he put us down here? Where there’s risk. There is a risk, right? There’s a risk you’ll make it into the kingdom of God. There’s a risk you won’t. And some won’t. And some will. Why? Risk doesn’t make any sense, okay? Why? So I would rather God start us off in a safe place. But he didn’t, okay? And here we are now we’re on the earth and they’re in the garden, okay?

0:11:17 – (Steve Gray): And everything’s beautiful. Everything’s great. My opinion is they, you know, they’re going to sin and they know they’re naked, but they weren’t naked. Like, all of a sudden, like, they were naked the whole time, but then their eyes were open to realize they’re naked. Yeah, No, I don’t think it was that. I think they had a covering. And see, God’s got a covering because what he’s created, he has a covering of his own glory. And his train, the glory of God. The train fills the temple of the Lord. He’s covered in glory, okay? The cloud of glory in that, the mist of glory.

0:11:51 – (Steve Gray): So if you’re going to create a man and a woman in your image, you’re not going to do it so they look like you. And that’s where people have gotten like, we look like God or God looks like us. No, the image was, I’m going to share my glory and I’m going to clothe you with the same clothing I wear, the clothing of glory. All right? So they didn’t know they were naked. Cause they were clothed in glory. That’s my opinion.

0:12:14 – (Steve Gray): And so then she goes out. Eve goes out messing around. And, you know, and she’s not supposed to eat of the tree, you know, and if she does eat of that one tree, then she’ll die, or anybody that eats of it will die. Okay? Why? Why put that tree there? Why? I thought you loved me so much you’re going to now put a tree that’s going to tempt me. And then I get a tempter comes, and all of a sudden they describe the devil as coming as a serpent.

0:12:43 – (Steve Gray): And I thought about this here. I’m going to speculate a little bit with my guys that are working with me here. I’m going to speculate a little bit, okay? So if I go too far, give me a thumbs down or something, but okay, I’m going to speculate a little bit, okay, But. But here’s this beautiful garden controlled by God and controlled by the man and the woman who God says this. I’m going to create you in my image. I want you to go and subdue the earth.

0:13:09 – (Steve Gray): What? Okay, why would. They’re going to go out, right? But they’re going to go out clothed in this glory. They’re not going to go out naked to start with. And so they’re clothed in this glory. And I want you to go out and subdue the earth. Okay? What does that tell you? That tells you if you have to subdue the earth, there’s something out there that needs to be subdued, right? That means anti God, evil, sin, I mean, just the devil, demons, everything’s out there and go out and subdue the earth.

0:13:42 – (Steve Gray): All right? But if you eat of this tree, you’re going to die. And like, what is this story about who would do this to their children? Like, yeah, you’re a child of God. There’s the tree that’ll kill you, and I’m going to put it in your neighborhood. Just make sure you don’t eat of it, you know, and you think, well, why am I here anyway? Why couldn’t I just be up there to start with? Why put me in this risk position?

0:14:06 – (Steve Gray): And then this is a speculation. So then it says that, like a serpent, some people believe it really was a serpent talking. I don’t care, but. Cause they had a donkey talk later in the Bible, so I don’t care. But either way, the devil, Satan got into the garden. Okay, I don’t get that either. I’m going to speculate a little bit that this temptation may have gone to the point, like, what happened? Did she let him in?

0:14:37 – (Steve Gray): Was it so enticing that I don’t know, but she had the power to subdue. He said all the trees, and all of them are yours except this tree. The good and evil that. And you can’t have. And you can have everything else. And all this is yours. Go and subdue. I mean, how did. If you’re subduing, how did Satan get in? As a serpent, as it says, anyway. Did somebody open the door? Did she open the door? Did she get curious?

0:15:04 – (Steve Gray): But I don’t know. That’s speculation. But anyway, somehow he gets in. Or worse yet, God allowed him to come in. Do you know, this is a good picture? After Jesus was baptized, the Bible says that it’s really. The word is hurled. Filled with the Holy Spirit, he is hurled. He is forcibly pushed, grabbed by the back of his collar, so to speak, and shoved into the wilderness. Why does this make any sense?

0:15:39 – (Steve Gray): Here’s my son, who I’m well pleased with. Now I’m going to throw you into the desert to be tempted by the devil. Why? Why risk it? Why? Just don’t go in there. Don’t make him go in there. Don’t even ask him to go in there. What is going on? We need some answers here. And so now we realize everywhere we’re looking, it’s unsafe, not safe for us here. There’s demons and darkness and evil and evil people now even. But anyway, so she gets tempted.

0:16:12 – (Steve Gray): She falls for it. And then gets her husband to eat. And then death enters the world. Disease, death, things that kill. Death enters the world. Disease enters the world. Wars enter the world. All that kind of stuff. And they know they’re naked. So what do you think happened most? If they were clothed in glory, like same clothes as God, in his image, then the glory left. Okay. And then they look and, yeah, now they know they’re naked. Cause they are.

0:16:40 – (Steve Gray): Because the glory left them, right? So they, you know, like people do. We’re going to do the best we can now. Let’s kill some animals and get their skins. Oh, no. Now, poor animals, little squirrels and rodents and lambs or whatever, they are going to die for your stupidity. And you’re going to have to. And you’re going to wear what they were wearing. They’re going to be naked now. And so it’s the whole. The story’s crazy when you start thinking about it until you get some answers. Okay, so here we are.

0:17:10 – (Steve Gray): Now they are cast out of the garden, still in the image of God to a certain degree. But they’ve lost the glory of God. What’s the Bible say? All have what? Sinned and fallen short of what? The glory of God. Oh, that’s what’s missing in our lives. The glory of God. And we had it, though. But God, why did you put Us down here in the risk danger zone. Now I can give you the answer why you’re here. Because when that rebellion happened in heaven, we take it lightly.

0:17:48 – (Steve Gray): Imagine if it happened to you. Imagine if there’s somebody going around work or neighborhood or church or whatever and they constantly lie about you and they tell their own story of what happened in heaven and they think they’re God and they think they’re it and all they do is ridicule you and lie about you, tell bad things about you and try to get everybody to hate you and not like you. Okay, well that’s going on all the time. Cause he’s an accuser. But anyway, we think because it’s God and it’s heaven that it doesn’t matter that there was a rebellion. It doesn’t matter that one of his own very special angels rose up against him and got prideful and rebelled and took one third of his friends, you know, let’s call it that, the angels.

0:18:37 – (Steve Gray): God created one third of his created angels that were his friends that were loyal to him and they rebelled and they believed a lie about God and there it goes. And they’re thrown out and taken somewhere else. But when they go to that somewhere else, there’s an emptiness in heaven of what happened. It’s dishonorable, it’s ugly, it’s rebellious and it happened. And it needs to be restored, it needs to be fixed, it needs to be completed.

0:19:07 – (Steve Gray): The system. But it doesn’t matter. Satan’s out there now lying about God and demonic powers are convincing people to follow the devil and live in the world. The God of this world is now the devil and people like it. They like carnality, they like sin, they like the things of the world. And all this is going on, rebellion against God is going on in the earth and that’s where we are. And through it all, then comes a people.

0:19:33 – (Steve Gray): And we go like, what is going on? Why did you do this? Why didn’t you put us on Mars or someplace? And where the devil is not? That’s because God’s trying to fix something that only we can fix. Guess what? There’s only one thing in this universe or kingdom of God that God does not have. He’s got everything. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He’s all powerful, all knowing, right? All, all, everything. He’s all except for one thing.

0:20:02 – (Steve Gray): That rebellion that happened in heaven was an insult, embarrassing insult to all the universe, to all of heaven. And now one third of the angels is gone. I don’t know, it doesn’t say he created another third. He could have. He can, but I don’t know. But at that time, one third of the angels believed the devil and came down here to continue to. To get people to believe in him and his ways and his thinking and curse God and speak, you know, not want to follow God.

0:20:36 – (Steve Gray): So why God put us here? Why am I here? I am here to give God the one thing he doesn’t have and the one thing he can’t get. Okay? So when this happened, God was dishonored and he cannot get his honor back. You know why? Because if a person or God, anybody, tries to restore their own honor, it becomes dishonorable if you go around saying, honor me, honor me, honor me, honor me. And even if it’s a king or something, they honor him, but he’s, you know.

0:21:15 – (Steve Gray): Okay, I guess I have to. But how much better when the king doesn’t have to say honor me, but he just gets honored. All right, so the reason you’re here and the reason I’m here is for the same reason, except to be expressed in different ways. For our strengths, abilities and talents. And so he sends his son. Yes. To die for us. Yes. To forgive us of our sins. Yes. But, you know, forgiveness was there on the earth before Jesus died. He didn’t invent forgiveness.

0:21:48 – (Steve Gray): He only made forgiveness through him now, not through other sacrifice. He became the lasting sacrifice. And forgiveness is through him. Forgiveness of our sins. Yes. So we can die and go to heaven. Yeah. But what am I supposed to do? Why am I here in this mess? And I’m in a risk zone. I’m at risk, and you’re at risk, or your friends are at risk. One of them could go to hell. This is risky business here, but God did it anyway.

0:22:13 – (Steve Gray): Why? Because Satan is here, aligning his, ruining his reputation, lying about him, cursing God, fighting God and acting like God, acting like a real God. Okay? And that hole in heaven, and maybe a hole in the heart of God is there because of what happened. And so God says, I’m going to fix this, and I’m going to restore the ugliness of that rebellion with my honor. But I can’t just go down and honor myself.

0:22:48 – (Steve Gray): Because that would be dishonorable, Right. If somebody tries to get you to honor them, it’s awkward, right? It’s awkward. You know, like they want you to get up in front of the class and say wonderful things about you, and they ask you to do it. Well, it’s just awkward. Like you, what you want me to. What you want Me? To do what? And so God can’t. If God tries to honor himself, it just becomes dishonorable.

0:23:09 – (Steve Gray): But there is a way to fix it that he gets a people and he creates a people, which originally they were going to be in his image and there wasn’t going to be sin. So Adam and Eve are going to be created in his image. They’re going to have offspring, they’re going to multiply, they’re going to subdue the Earth. And in his image, they are going to restore his honor. And they’re going to restore the honor of God right in the devil’s territory.

0:23:33 – (Steve Gray): You see, he could have put us on Mars and we could honor God there or Jupiter or someplace, and we could honor God there. But what would it do? The only way it works is if we honor God in the devil’s territory, in the God of this world, the devil, Satan. And here’s a people who now have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. And all they want to do is honor God right here on Earth. You know what? You know why he put us here, and you know why you’re here.

0:24:04 – (Steve Gray): This was not a mistake. This was not a risk to God. This was an invasion. It was an invasion. He invaded the Devil’s territory. And we are the soldiers. We are the people. It got fouled out because he would have done it through Adam and Eve and their offspring. And it became a big, big mess, right? But Jesus came and became that man who. In the devil’s territory, in. In the place where people die, he gave his life and he died and he defeated death to open it up to life again. That was the life that they originally had in the garden.

0:24:42 – (Steve Gray): He opened up life again for you, for me. And why are we here now that he gave us that? Okay, now we’re going to join that. We’re not on Mars. We’re not on Jupiter. We’re right here. We are part of an invasion that is here to restore God’s honor in many, many different ways. Now, I told you to ask you at the beginning. Why would God care whether I told a lie or not? I mean, I’m not going to tell it about him. I’ll just tell it about you.

0:25:06 – (Steve Gray): Why does he care that I tell a lie about you? Eh? That’s between us, right? No, see, now, because I’m in His kingdom and I’ve been bought by the blood of the Lamb. For me to tell a lie is what, dishonorable? It’s not his character. It’s not his way, it’s not his kingdom. And. And I’ve come into the kingdom to honor him. So I don’t just try to be right. Not lie or cheat or whatever, sin or whatever, because I’m afraid I’ll get in trouble.

0:25:35 – (Steve Gray): I’m here because if I do, I’m not representing him in the earth, which is the reason I’m here. Represent me in the earth, get my honor going. And I’m not making you do it. I’m not forcing you to honor me. I’m not coming down and bang, slamming my fist down and making people honor me. No. We volunteer our honor. We are part of an invasion. God put us here in the invasion zone, in the Risk zone, in the war zone, so that we could restore his honor in a way that only we can do.

0:26:07 – (Steve Gray): Because it’s the one thing. If God restores his own honor, it becomes dishonorable. If we do it, we voluntarily live our lives out to honor God. Honor becomes a power in our life. And, and, and, and it says that who, whoever honors God, Him, God will honor. There’s a reward in it now and in the life to come. All right, so why are you here? Is it to struggle? Is it just to try to make ends meet? Is it try to. Is it to get angry? Is it just to get married? Is it to have kids and then die?

0:26:42 – (Steve Gray): No. You’re here to honor the Lord however you can. And we live our lives the way we live it because that’s part of the honor program that we accept. Because God’s honor needs to be restored in the earth from the hole that was made in heaven. And if God does it himself, it’s dishonorable. But it’s the one thing I have that God cannot do Himself. And that is honor him in this holy invasion that I’m a part of and you’re a part of too.

0:27:11 – (Steve Gray): How about that? Food for thought. Something to think about. I hope you will. Till next time, bye-bye.