How to Love Difficult People: How to Love Those Who Hurt You

Introduction:

How can I love someone after a hurt? (Genesis 45:1-15)

When I trust God is at work...

1. I reject Revenge . (Gen 45:1-3)
2. I recognize God redeems wrongs . (Gen 45:4-8)

   Romans 8:28 - And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

3. I release My resentment . (Gen 45:5,9-13)

   Genesis 41:51-52 - Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh. "For," he said, "God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house." The name of the second he called Ephraim, "For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction."

4. I run After reconciliation . (Gen 45:14-15)

   Romans 12:18 - If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  01:15-01:15

  Well, good morning.

  01:17-01:20

  If we haven't met yet, my name is Justin.

  01:21-01:25

  I'm one of the elders here, and I am blessed to be able to share God's word with you today.

  01:27-01:39

  This month, we've been going through a series on intentional love, and I hope that like me, you've been encouraged by hearing Dan, Pastor Taylor, and Pastor Rich preach these past few weeks.

  01:40-01:52

  I have the very unenviable task We're following all of them today to conclude the series, so it seems as prudent as ever to go to the Lord in prayer as we begin.

  01:53-02:03

  So as is our tradition, if we could take just a moment and you would pray for me to faithfully represent God's word, and I will pray for you to receive it.

  02:09-02:09

  Amen.

  02:12-02:19

  Many years ago in college, several of my friends enrolled in a flag football elective.

  02:19-02:25

  Now, we had done other sports previously, but this one didn't fit my schedule.

  02:25-02:32

  So for the next few months, I kept hearing about all the fun they were having, football story after football story.

  02:33-02:37

  And they're like, Justin, you have to join next time.

  02:38-02:41

  So that spring, I signed up.

  02:41-02:44

  And I was really excited.

  02:45-02:45

  Like, how excited?

  02:46-02:51

  I went out to the store and actually bought some receiver gloves, right?

  02:51-02:54

  Because that's definitely how seriously I should take this.

  02:56-03:08

  And I was in my apartment actually visualizing myself flying through the air, making contested one-handed catches, and my teammates surrounding me after a touchdown as I'm doing some cool pose.

  03:10-03:14

  Well, then came the first day of class.

  03:15-03:16

  It's the first series.

  03:17-03:18

  We had the ball.

  03:18-03:21

  We drew up the play on the quarterback's chest.

  03:22-03:26

  I'm going to streak down the sideline and run a post across the middle of the field.

  03:28-03:29

  We lined up.

  03:30-03:31

  I restrapped my gloves.

  03:33-03:37

  And as the ball was snapped, I took off like I had a jet pack on.

  03:38-03:44

  full speed, plant my foot, cut in, and as I turn up to look for the ball, wham!

  03:45-03:48

  I got lifted on my feet and slammed into the ground.

  03:48-03:49

  I never saw him.

  03:51-03:55

  And that guy was also going full speed.

  03:56-03:58

  It was supposed to be flag football, right?

  03:58-03:59

  Meaning no tackles.

  04:00-04:02

  But he didn't see me either.

  04:03-04:04

  So I got lit up.

  04:08-04:09

  I was laying on the ground.

  04:10-04:12

  I destroyed my shoulder.

  04:13-04:21

  And I was rehabbing it for months, so I didn't play another snap that day, nor have I played another snap of football in the 15 years since.

  04:22-04:26

  But a doctor did recently ask me, like, what happened with my shoulder?

  04:26-04:30

  So I did get to say, oh, you know, it's an old football injury.

  04:32-04:33

  (audience laughing)

  04:34-04:41

  Okay, Justin, but what does you getting hurt have to do with intentional love?

  04:42-04:49

  Well, today we are talking about a pretty tough topic, how to love after you've been hurt.

  04:50-04:55

  And this month we've talked a lot about love, but what do I mean by hurt?

  04:56-05:02

  To be clear, if you're in an abusive situation of some kind, you need to contact our pastors immediately.

  05:03-05:10

  But there are so many other ways that we hurt each other relationally, we can't even list them all.

  05:11-05:20

  Like, for example, how do you love someone after they said something that hurt so badly, you still think about it even years later?

  05:21-05:24

  Or how do you love someone who betrayed you?

  05:25-05:30

  Someone who you trusted and they suddenly turned on you with their actions?

  05:32-05:36

  Or how do you love someone who fills your life with empty promises?

  05:37-05:40

  In that case, the inaction is what hurts.

  05:41-05:43

  We could go on, of course.

  05:44-05:51

  Well, I shared the football story because when I got hurt playing, it was because I never saw the defender.

  05:52-05:54

  I wasn't looking in the right place.

  05:56-06:00

  And oftentimes, after a hurt, we aren't looking in the right place.

  06:01-06:08

  And what I mean is, typically, after I've been hurt, I'm completely consumed with the hurt itself.

  06:10-06:17

  All of my focus is on how I was offended, or how I was mistreated, or how I was disrespected, whatever it is.

  06:18-06:23

  I'm looking right at it, as I guess most of us naturally do.

  06:24-06:35

  But we can't stay focused there, because as we're going to see from the passage today, overcoming hurt in order to love, it starts by looking to the Lord.

  06:37-06:51

  If I condense the sermon down to one of those church Burger King signs, it might say, "To see past your hurt, you must see God at work." But we can go into a little bit more detail this morning.

  06:52-06:57

  If you would please open your Bibles with me to Genesis, chapter 45.

  06:59-07:01

  We're going to be reading from the account of Joseph.

  07:01-07:05

  So, as you're turning there, let's quickly review his story.

  07:06-07:09

  It begins back in Genesis chapter 37.

  07:10-07:17

  Joseph was his father Jacob's favorite son, and he kept having dreams that someday his brothers would bow down to him.

  07:18-07:27

  His brothers were very angered by this, So they attacked and nearly killed Joseph before selling him into slavery and tricking Jacob into thinking he was dead.

  07:29-07:37

  Years passed and Joseph was wrongfully imprisoned in Egypt, but shortly after being thrown in jail, he was appointed Egypt's prime minister.

  07:37-07:40

  This is a very abbreviated summary, by the way.

  07:41-07:48

  Fast forward and there was widespread famine, but under Joseph's leadership, Egypt had reserved plenty of food.

  07:49-08:04

  So Jacob sent his other sons there to buy some, but they didn't know that the man in charge questioning them and testing their character was Joseph until Genesis chapter 45.

  08:06-08:08

  So how can I love someone after a hurt?

  08:09-08:17

  On your outline, when I trust God is at work, number one, I reject revenge.

  08:18-08:22

  So let's start, Genesis 45, verse 1.

  08:24-08:29

  It says, "Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him.

  08:30-08:38

  He cried, 'Make everyone go out from me.' So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers.

  08:39-08:43

  And he wept aloud so that the Egyptians heard it and the household of Pharaoh heard it.

  08:44-08:48

  And Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph.

  08:49-08:58

  Is my father still alive?" But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence.

  09:00-09:03

  They were dismayed at his presence.

  09:04-09:07

  Yeah, imagine being one of the brothers.

  09:08-09:13

  Together, you sold Joseph away and faked his death, and now you're at his mercy.

  09:14-09:19

  And with Joseph's power at that time, any type of vengeance was on the table.

  09:20-09:23

  Imprisonment, execution, court jesters, anything.

  09:25-09:35

  And imagine being Joseph, the people who hurt you more deeply than you thought was possible, are now in front of you and you can get justice.

  09:37-09:39

  But Joseph wasn't thinking about getting even, was he?

  09:41-09:43

  Your Bible says he could not control himself.

  09:44-09:48

  And he wept so loudly, everyone around heard him.

  09:49-09:55

  That uncontrollable emotion wasn't from rage though, it was from compassion.

  09:56-09:58

  He still cared for his family.

  09:58-10:12

  He said, "I am Joseph, is my father still alive?" He could have said, "I am Joseph, now it's your turn to suffer." or I am Joseph, do you realize what you've put me through?

  10:14-10:19

  But Joseph rejected revenge, despite what he endured because of his brothers.

  10:20-10:23

  He chose intentional love.

  10:24-10:32

  And we'll see more of that love throughout this passage, but let's focus on how Joseph denied that instinct of payback.

  10:33-10:38

  It's like if someone put a box of donuts in front of a child.

  10:39-10:42

  Is their first instinct to have one?

  10:43-10:44

  No way.

  10:45-10:46

  Not for kid Justin.

  10:47-10:49

  I would have had another and another and another.

  10:50-10:52

  And if you don't believe me, you can ask my parents after service.

  10:54-11:03

  But as adults, we can reject that initial response and limit ourselves to just one delicious chocolate frosted treat.

  11:04-11:05

  I'm very pro doughnuts.

  11:06-11:07

  (audience laughing)

  11:07-11:12

  My point is, taming an initial reaction isn't just for donuts.

  11:13-11:16

  It's common to so much of the Christian life.

  11:17-11:24

  Reject the sinful response, and through Christ, make the more difficult, but ultimately better choice.

  11:25-11:31

  Reject the desire for revenge, and as difficult as it may be, choose love.

  11:32-11:34

  And you might be thinking, well, check.

  11:35-11:36

  I reject revenge.

  11:37-11:43

  Joseph didn't send his brothers to a dungeon, and I've never issued a dungeon sentence or anything like that.

  11:45-11:48

  But revenge looks a little bit different for us.

  11:49-11:54

  We have some classic revenge moves, like the passive aggressive move.

  11:55-11:57

  Hey, hey, are you still upset about yesterday?

  11:58-11:58

  Me?

  11:59-11:59

  Never better.

  12:01-12:03

  Why would being insulted like that make me upset?

  12:03-12:04

  I'm good.

  12:06-12:08

  Or what about the silent treatment?

  12:10-12:11

  We get revenge without saying a thing.

  12:13-12:15

  Or on the other end, venting.

  12:16-12:23

  I'm so offended and you hurt me so bad, I'm gonna raise my voice until I feel like we're even.

  12:25-12:26

  All of that is revenge.

  12:28-12:40

  In our sinful flesh, we love to hold others accountable for their wrongs, we certainly don't want that treatment when we're wrong, but we don't usually think about that.

  12:41-12:51

  The other path here is rejecting the instinct for revenge and intentionally choosing love, being patient, listening, giving grace.

  12:53-13:04

  When we get that urge to retaliate, we first have to be aware that it's even happening, and then ask the Lord to move our focus away from the hurt.

  13:05-13:08

  Because as we just read, Joseph didn't retaliate.

  13:09-13:12

  So we have to ask, why not?

  13:14-13:17

  I'll tell you, he wasn't looking at the hurt.

  13:18-13:20

  Joseph was looking up.

  13:22-13:26

  Point number two on your outline, how can I love someone after a hurt?

  13:28-13:34

  When I trust God is at work, I recognize God redeems wrongs.

  13:35-13:38

  Let's continue reading in verse four.

  13:40-13:44

  It says, "So Joseph said to his brothers, "come near to me, please.

  13:46-13:46

  "And they came near.

  13:47-13:51

  "And he said, I am your brother Joseph, "whom you sold into Egypt.

  13:52-13:56

  "And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves "because you sold me here.

  13:57-14:00

  "For God sent me before you to preserve life.

  14:01-14:09

  For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest.

  14:10-14:17

  And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors.

  14:18-14:22

  So it was not you who sent me here, but God.

  14:22-14:32

  He has made me a father to Pharaoh and Lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt." Pause there.

  14:34-14:40

  So continuing his speech, Joseph detailed the reason he rejected revenge.

  14:40-14:41

  Did you see that?

  14:42-15:01

  Verse five, "Do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here for God sent me before you." Verse seven, "And God sent me before you." Verse eight, "It was not you who sent me here, but God, what does that mean?" What does he mean?

  15:03-15:07

  Joseph knew, and we know, that his brothers were wrong.

  15:08-15:15

  The book of James tells us that God tempts no one to sin, so Joseph's brothers were 100% guilty.

  15:16-15:19

  They sinned against Joseph by their choice.

  15:20-15:32

  The reason, though, that Joseph kept saying, "God sent me," is he understood a wonderful truth about our God, which is also the key to this entire sermon.

  15:33-15:37

  God can bring something good out of something evil.

  15:39-15:44

  God does not cause wrongs against you, God redeems wrongs against you.

  15:46-15:58

  So Joseph's brothers sent him to Egypt with the intention to destroy, but God sent Joseph to Egypt with the intention to save, among others, to save the very people that betrayed him.

  16:00-16:06

  So, did God send Joseph to Egypt, or did his brother's betrayal send him to Egypt?

  16:08-16:08

  Yes.

  16:09-16:11

  Can you fully explain that to me?

  16:11-16:12

  No, I can't.

  16:13-16:15

  That is the mystery of God's providence.

  16:16-16:20

  But if you have more questions about that, Pastor Taylor will happily answer them after service.

  16:23-16:28

  See, Joseph understood it's not possible to stop God's purpose.

  16:29-16:40

  Like, have you ever taken a vacation or even heard of a vacation with these two elements, a long drive and a dad?

  16:42-16:51

  Let me ask you, when that dad purposes in his mind to travel on this vacation, is there anything that can stop him?

  16:52-16:55

  Weather, traffic, bathroom breaks?

  16:55-16:56

  We'll just cancel those.

  16:57-16:58

  Dad, do you know what I'm saying?

  16:59-17:01

  We are going to get there, right?

  17:02-17:13

  One year, we were about to drive home from North Carolina, and somehow, all the windows on the car, including the moon roof, got stuck open.

  17:14-17:15

  and it was raining.

  17:16-17:17

  (Laughter)

  17:17-17:26

  We were with other families, so my mom, my sister, and I got distributed into other vehicles, but my dad didn't go to a repair shop.

  17:27-17:30

  He didn't duct tape garbage bags everywhere.

  17:31-17:45

  No, as the cars pulled out, I looked over and saw my dad driving with all the windows still wide open, a huge grin on his face, and swim goggles over his eyes.

  17:46-17:47

  (Laughter)

  17:51-17:57

  As a kid, when I looked at my father that day, I knew nothing could stop my dad.

  17:59-18:06

  And when Joseph looked at his heavenly father, he knew nothing could stop his dad.

  18:08-18:11

  Obviously, there are so many ways this analogy breaks down.

  18:12-18:14

  I love my dad, but he doesn't rule over the universe.

  18:16-18:21

  And not just my dad, but all of us as humans are sometimes caught off guard.

  18:22-18:23

  But God's never surprised.

  18:24-18:42

  God never thinks, "Oh no, what am I gonna do now?" But we have to know that God's plan is unstoppable because trusting that God is at work in your life is the critical step to loving someone who hurts you.

  18:44-18:45

  Because bad stuff happens.

  18:46-18:52

  People get hurt, offended, ignored, cut down.

  18:54-18:59

  And don't leave thinking that being hurt in itself is good, because it isn't.

  19:00-19:02

  The world is messed up.

  19:03-19:06

  If you're dealing with hurt right now, I am genuinely sorry.

  19:07-19:14

  and whoever hurt you was wrong, someday in heaven we'll be free from sin and from hurt.

  19:16-19:24

  Until then, we have to trust that God is at work even in our bad situations, like Joseph's.

  19:25-19:31

  And like we read in Romans 8.28, it's a familiar verse to many of us.

  19:32-20:08

  It says, "And we know that for those who love God, "All things work together for good "for those who are called according to his purpose." This does not say that all the things that happen to you are good in themselves, but this verse does say, "For those in Christ, God works together all things, "the good things and the bad things for your good." So even in the bad times, recognize that He redeems wrongs.

  20:10-20:16

  And in regards to intentionally loving those who hurt us, by recognizing that, we can even forgive.

  20:18-20:22

  Point number three, how can I love someone after I hurt?

  20:23-20:28

  When I trust God is at work, I release my resentment.

  20:30-20:35

  Forgiveness, we're talking about forgiveness, but that doesn't start with an R.

  20:38-20:52

  We saw that Joseph forgave his brothers in verse five, but we can read this passage and even the whole story of Joseph and still not take in the magnitude of what's being forgiven.

  20:54-21:00

  Joseph was hurt so deeply, he named his children out of his pain.

  21:02-21:06

  I'll jot down Genesis chapter 41, verse 51.

  21:07-21:08

  I think we have that, yes.

  21:09-21:32

  It says, "Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, "for he said, 'God has made me forget all of my hardship "'and all my father's house.' "The name of the second he called Ephraim, "'for God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.'" decades of pain at the hands of his brothers.

  21:33-21:39

  So keep that in mind as we continue reading in verse nine.

  21:42-21:52

  Joseph said, "Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, "Thus says your son Joseph, "God made me lord of all Egypt.

  21:53-21:55

  "Come down to me, do not tarry.

  21:55-22:04

  "You shall dwell in the land of Goshen "and you shall be near me, you and your children "and your children's children and your flocks, "your herds and all that you have.

  22:09-22:18

  "There I will provide for you, "for there are yet five years of famine to come, "so that you and your household and all that you have "do not come to poverty.

  22:19-22:24

  "And now your eyes see, "and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see "that it is my mouth that speaks to you.

  22:25-22:31

  You must tell my father of all my honor in Egypt and of all that you have seen.

  22:31-22:34

  Hurry and bring my father down here.

  22:35-22:40

  So despite his hurt, does that sound like someone holding resentment?

  22:41-22:48

  No, Joseph forgave his brothers and completely provided for them too.

  22:48-22:51

  He was like, you guys, you gotta tell dad.

  22:51-23:00

  We're gonna live over here in the best land and just hurry and move in, and God sent me to get this already, and now you're coming, and did you tell dad yet?

  23:01-23:04

  Joseph is so selfless here, it's easy to forget.

  23:05-23:07

  He's talking to the people that ruined his life.

  23:09-23:13

  Forgiveness like this makes no sense.

  23:14-23:16

  It's intentional love.

  23:17-23:20

  But you might be thinking, I still don't see the connection.

  23:21-23:27

  How does trusting God as at work lead me to forgive?

  23:29-23:32

  Joseph saw God's higher purpose.

  23:33-23:43

  God raised him to his position in Egypt so that he could rescue countless lives, including those of his own family, God's chosen people.

  23:45-23:50

  Looking at that instead of the hurt led him to forgive.

  23:50-23:59

  Because when you really believe God is working all things together for your good, you are free to forgive.

  24:00-24:02

  Just rewind for a minute.

  24:03-24:08

  We are free from revenge because we know he handles the justice.

  24:10-24:15

  We are free from focusing on the hurt because he redeems wrongs.

  24:16-24:21

  And because he redeems wrongs, We are free to forgive.

  24:22-24:27

  We can let go of grudges because we know he is at work.

  24:28-24:39

  When God is going to use this for good, how God is going to use this for good, we often, almost always, don't know in the moment, but we know he will.

  24:41-24:50

  And sure, you might not need to forgive anyone right now, But any relationship of any significance requires forgiveness.

  24:50-24:56

  So, assuming you ever interact with another human again, you will need to forgive.

  24:58-25:03

  Others might say, "Well, I was hurt, and I want to forgive the person.

  25:03-25:04

  I really do.

  25:04-25:10

  But, to be honest, I'm struggling to let it go." Is that you?

  25:12-25:18

  Or are you more like the person who would say, I was hurt and I don't want to forgive that person.

  25:18-25:20

  You don't understand what they did.

  25:21-25:22

  They don't deserve it.

  25:25-25:28

  And I'm not here to minimize anybody's hurt this morning.

  25:30-25:36

  But you have to remember that even at our worst, God is intentionally loving us.

  25:38-25:41

  And you cannot love without forgiveness.

  25:42-25:48

  Forgiveness doesn't mean everything always goes back to the way it was for many reasons.

  25:49-25:49

  It might not.

  25:50-25:53

  But it does mean that you let it go.

  25:55-26:04

  For example, have you ever been in an argument and brought up a time that the other person hurt you in the past?

  26:05-26:07

  We all know that's a really bad idea.

  26:08-26:13

  but it also reveals you haven't released that resentment.

  26:15-26:18

  Because releasing it means I don't bring it up anymore.

  26:19-26:21

  They're forgiven and it's done.

  26:22-26:31

  Releasing it means even if it does come back up in my mind, I ask God to help me think of something else because it's over.

  26:33-26:39

  That's only possible through the renewal of our hearts and minds by Jesus Christ.

  26:40-26:47

  And if we look to the forgiveness we receive in him, our relationship with God is better after forgiveness, right?

  26:47-26:51

  When we forgive someone, the relationship should get better.

  26:52-26:53

  Let's go after that.

  26:54-27:02

  If you get in a disagreement with a friend, or a relative, or a spouse, change the fight.

  27:02-27:05

  Fight over being the first to ask for forgiveness.

  27:06-27:08

  Fight to be the first to forgive.

  27:10-27:14

  Because that's how the, excuse me, let's try that again.

  27:14-27:17

  That's how the relationship is reconciled.

  27:18-27:24

  And if we want to love after a hurt, we need to run after reconciliation.

  27:27-27:32

  Conveniently, point number four, when I trust God is at work, I run after reconciliation.

  27:35-27:37

  Let's continue in verse 14.

  27:39-27:45

  Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck.

  27:46-27:49

  And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them.

  27:49-27:52

  After that, his brothers talked with him.

  27:54-28:04

  So we see that after Joseph's speech, he and his brothers were reconciled, Though I have to laugh at after that, his brothers talked with him.

  28:04-28:18

  Obviously they were terrified at first, but after Joseph gave a dissertation on God's providence and a Mount Rushmore forgiveness speech, at the same time, they were like, okay, yeah, yeah, we can talk.

  28:19-28:30

  Through Joseph's recognition of God working in his life, he forgave and loved his brothers, reuniting the family and preserving God's people.

  28:31-28:38

  Do you see the impact of Joseph's intentional love on his family, on a nation?

  28:40-28:45

  But what does running after reconciliation look like for us?

  28:47-28:55

  Well, we have to start by acknowledging that the goal, if possible, is reconciliation with the person that hurt you.

  28:56-28:57

  Where do I get that?

  28:58-29:00

  Take a look at Romans 12, 18.

  29:02-29:19

  It says, "If possible, so far as it depends on you, "live peaceably with all." Notice the phrase, "So far as it depends on you," because the reality is, one person cannot repair a relationship on their own.

  29:20-29:25

  Even if you have forgiven someone, they may refuse to restore things.

  29:26-29:28

  Some of us are living that right now.

  29:29-29:33

  That's why we say run after reconciliation.

  29:33-29:40

  Obviously, it plays out differently depending on the nature of the relationship, but are you pursuing peace?

  29:41-29:46

  Are you showing that person intentional love in whatever form is appropriate?

  29:47-29:52

  If at all possible, Are you trying to build the relationship back up?

  29:53-29:59

  And you can't say, well, it's not at all possible because it's their fault.

  30:00-30:11

  I wish I could say the reward of reconciliation is certain if you intentionally love whoever once hurt you.

  30:12-30:13

  But I can't say that.

  30:14-30:21

  But we still run after it because we We are called as believers to represent Christ.

  30:22-30:30

  We must reflect the way he pursues reconciliation with us, knocking on the door of our hearts.

  30:32-30:41

  And as we start to close, I'd add that every one of the points today reflects our Lord Jesus Christ.

  30:43-31:13

  When you choose to reject revenge, reflect the way Jesus chose love for his enemies, us, over giving us what we deserve. And of course the supreme evidence that God redeems wrongs is found in Jesus' death and resurrection because he was killed out of jealousy and hatred in the hearts of mankind and yet God's will to save was accomplished.

  31:13-31:18

  The absolute worst is simultaneously the absolute best.

  31:19-31:39

  And forgiveness, I mean, when you forgive someone who hurt you, someone who doesn't deserve to be forgiven, you are bringing them face to face with Jesus Christ because forgiving someone who doesn't deserve it is exactly what he does for us.

  31:41-31:45

  Through that forgiveness, Jesus reconciles us to the Father.

  31:46-31:51

  If you don't have a relationship with him, he is running after reconciliation with you.

  31:53-32:02

  And if you do have a relationship with him, he enables you to trust that he is at work, 'cause we cannot do that on our own.

  32:04-32:07

  Look not at the hurt, look to him.

  32:10-32:19

  And if you've been with us through this month, let's zoom out for a moment, because each week of the Intentional Love series really had the same point.

  32:21-32:25

  We have to be intentional about unconditional love.

  32:26-32:28

  Loving our neighbor, right?

  32:28-32:35

  Loving those who we disagree with, loving our enemies, and loving those who hurt us.

  32:36-32:40

  Frankly, the world is telling you to despise these people.

  32:41-32:50

  But this month, we saw that despite what the world says, God's word tells us that we must love.

  32:51-32:53

  We must love our neighbors.

  32:54-32:57

  We must love people while disagreeing.

  32:57-32:59

  We must love our enemies.

  33:00-33:03

  And we must even love those who have hurt us.

  33:05-33:10

  That requires intentionality and the transformational love of Jesus Christ.

  33:11-33:18

  So our prayer is that this series has been an equipping for that kind of intentional love.

  33:19-33:20

  Let's go after it together.

  33:21-33:22

  Will you pray with me, please?

  33:28-33:32

  Lord God, we thank you for your word.

  33:34-33:44

  And God, those of us in this room who have come to a relationship with you know the incredible power of your love.

  33:46-33:50

  We know the impact of your intentional love on us.

  33:52-34:06

  And so God, even as we, over this month and specifically this morning, as we went over, God, how to act with the same intentionality towards those who are difficult to love.

  34:08-34:11

  We do that knowing that it's only possible through you, God.

  34:13-34:21

  We humble ourselves before you and ask that you would work through us to love everyone in our lives, God.

  34:23-34:30

  And we pray that those who don't know you would come to a saving knowledge of what you have done in your love.

  34:32-34:37

  All these things we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Genesis 45:1-15

1. What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
   

2. Why is our natural reaction to hurt that we should “get even”?
   

3. Have you seen God redeem wrongs against you? How should seeing God at work free you from carrying resentment?
   

4. As difficult as forgiveness can be in some situations, why are we called to continually forgive?
   

5. Why do we “run after” reconciliation?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Covered by the Blood

Introduction:

The Gospel in the Garden: Three Foundations of Faith (Genesis 3:20-24):

1. Believe God's Promise . (Gen 3:20)
2. Receive God's Provision . (Gen 3:21)
3. Trust God's Path . (Gen 3:22-24)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  00:54-00:58

  Open your Bibles with me please to Genesis chapter 3.

  01:00-01:06

  I want you to imagine with me please that you have a teenage son.

  01:06-01:07

  Now some of you do.

  01:08-01:11

  And some of you, your children are too young.

  01:11-01:12

  Some of you maybe don't have children.

  01:13-01:14

  Some of you aren't ready to have children yet.

  01:14-01:16

  But you can pretend with me today, can't you?

  01:17-01:17

  Can you pretend?

  01:19-01:21

  Alright, four of you can. How about the rest of you?

  01:22-01:22

  Can you humor me?

  01:24-01:25

  Okay, so you have this teenage son.

  01:25-01:35

  I want you to imagine this teenage son goes to a party, and at this party, there is a classmate of his that just hates your son for whatever reason.

  01:35-01:37

  He just, he hates your son.

  01:39-01:49

  And he, this other boy lies in ambush, and when your son shows up, this other boy jumps out and viciously sneak attack.

  01:49-01:50

  He murders your son.

  01:52-01:52

  Okay?

  01:54-02:05

  Now if you track that murderous boy down and you kill him, that's called vengeance.

  02:08-02:43

  Or if you track that murderous boy down and you cooperate with the police and you make sure that he goes to trial and he's punished for what he did to your son, that's called justice. Or, we're pretending, let's say it goes to trial, and somehow you're able to convince the judge and the jury to let him go, out the door. No punishment. That's called Oh, mercy.

  02:45-03:17

  But, at the trial, let's say somehow you convince the judge to allow you to take that boy who murdered your son, you convince that judge to allow you to take that boy home, and you raise him as if he were your son, and you love him, and you encourage him, And you do everything for Him as if He was your own flesh and blood.

  03:19-03:20

  That's called grace.

  03:22-03:25

  I love that little illustration because it helps me understand some terms.

  03:25-03:26

  I'm going to be honest with you.

  03:27-03:31

  Usually when I think about it, I identify with the parent.

  03:32-03:34

  Because I have teenage boys.

  03:34-03:36

  One of them is turning 16 today.

  03:39-03:43

  The truth be told, church, in that illustration, we're not the parent.

  03:46-03:49

  We're the kid that murdered the son in that illustration.

  03:52-03:57

  Because of our sin, in a real sense, we are responsible for Jesus' death.

  04:00-04:02

  He went to the cross not for His sin.

  04:03-04:04

  He went to the cross for our sin.

  04:07-04:08

  And the Father adopted us.

  04:10-04:13

  Because of Jesus Christ, church, this is why we celebrate today.

  04:13-04:15

  Not just today, we celebrate this every week, don't we?

  04:16-04:28

  But through Jesus Christ, not only can we be forgiven of our sin, that's mercy, we can be adopted as children of God.

  04:28-04:37

  John 1:12 says, "For those who received Him, for those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.

  04:39-04:43

  Our church has been going through this series the past few weeks called Foundations.

  04:43-04:47

  It's a Theology 101 series because this stuff is important.

  04:48-04:49

  We started with creation, right?

  04:49-04:53

  Nothing else really matters if we don't believe the first verse of God's Word.

  04:54-05:03

  We talked about creation and we talked about how God created the perfect relationship, and woman, husband and wife.

  05:04-05:05

  And then we talked about sin.

  05:06-05:10

  And a couple of days ago we talked about the consequences of sin.

  05:11-05:12

  We talked about the curse.

  05:13-05:20

  And while Jesus Christ was on the cross, the Bible says He literally became a curse for us.

  05:21-05:31

  And the amazing thing about all of these foundational things to me, of all the truths that we've looked at over the past few weeks, This could be the most amazing thing.

  05:32-05:41

  As soon as man falls, as soon as man sins, God immediately goes to work to redeem him.

  05:43-05:49

  We know the whole story because of the side of history in which we live, right?

  05:49-05:52

  We live on the other side of the cross.

  05:53-05:55

  We live on the other side of the empty tomb.

  05:55-05:56

  We know the whole story.

  05:56-06:06

  In fact, our church just finished a series in the Gospel of John called "Knowing Jesus." And we know the story.

  06:06-06:10

  We know that Jesus Christ died on that cross for our sins.

  06:11-06:14

  We know that He rose from the dead to give us eternal life.

  06:14-06:20

  And we know right now, Jesus Christ is ruling in the lives of those who receive Him.

  06:21-06:34

  And everything we celebrate about Jesus, everything that God has given us in Jesus, we actually find the foundation for those things in the Garden of Eden.

  06:35-06:38

  Because we're going to be completely honest here, as we are every week.

  06:40-06:55

  But yes, Jesus died, Jesus rose from the dead, but honestly, those truths mean nothing to you without biblical faith.

  06:57-07:02

  And I'm talking today about real biblical faith.

  07:03-07:09

  You see, on Friday I talked about how Good Friday Service sort of carries this heaviness of sorrow, and that's natural!

  07:09-07:24

  An innocent man was betrayed and falsely accused and horribly executed, and we talked about how the cross is so much deeper than sympathy for a man who died for a cause.

  07:24-07:26

  It's so much deeper than that.

  07:27-07:28

  And I would say the same thing today.

  07:29-07:35

  Because this type of service naturally carries with it another type of emotion, doesn't it?

  07:36-07:41

  Because we all come to church and it's morning and it's bright, and we're going to see a bunch of new people here.

  07:43-07:45

  And we all have new shirts on.

  07:47-07:49

  I got this one at Gabe's.

  07:49-07:50

  $11.99.

  07:54-07:55

  Don't I look so handsome in it?

  07:58-07:59

  But you see what I'm saying.

  07:59-08:02

  This carries a whole different atmosphere, doesn't it?

  08:02-08:04

  Friday had the sorrow, and it should!

  08:04-08:07

  And there's excitement this morning, and there should be!

  08:10-08:27

  But you can't just reduce this another feeling of sentimentality. There has to be real biblical faith or this doesn't mean anything to you. Like, "Yay, Jesus!" No! This is so much more than that.

  08:30-08:32

  And that's what I want to talk about today.

  08:33-08:47

  Alright? What is faith? Do you have it? Because if I pulled the room right now, I I guarantee you, 100% of you would say, "Yes, I believe." Every one of you.

  08:48-08:58

  And if we were able to reach out and poll every single person that watches this stream, "Do you believe?" Every single one would say, "Yeah, I believe." But what does that even mean to believe?

  08:59-09:02

  Because biblically, it might not mean what you think it means.

  09:03-09:07

  So in your outline today, the Gospel in the Garden, Three Foundations of Faith.

  09:08-09:13

  Everything that faith means we find right here in this account, right off the bat.

  09:14-09:15

  What does it mean to believe?

  09:15-09:16

  What is the gospel?

  09:17-09:18

  What is faith?

  09:18-09:20

  Here it is, number one, write this down.

  09:20-09:22

  Faith is believing God's promise.

  09:23-09:24

  Believe God's promise.

  09:25-09:33

  Now as we talk about faith, the most simple definition of faith, like if you're like, "Just make it as easy as possible," it's this.

  09:34-09:35

  Faith is believing God's Word.

  09:36-09:36

  That's what faith is.

  09:38-09:39

  God said it, I believe it.

  09:41-09:53

  And Adam and his wife, we've seen through this story, they believed God until the serpent came along, Satan in the form of a serpent, he got them to believe the lie.

  09:55-10:01

  Satan convinced Eve and Adam was with her, "Hey, hey, hey, God's holding out on you.

  10:01-10:02

  Did you know that?

  10:03-10:44

  God's holding out on you." They stopped believing God started believing the lie. They experienced perfection. They experienced God's perfect grace and provision and love and presence and they stopped trusting Him. And now as we saw on Friday, they're cursed. They're dying. Look at verse 20, after God pronounces the curse, ending with, by the way, death. Look at the last line of verse 19. He says, "For you are dust, and to dust you shall return." Adam, you're going to die. Your life is going to be painful and temporary.

  10:45-10:50

  Look at the response to that. You can't miss this. This isn't an accident.

  10:50-11:08

  This is the very next verse. Verse 20 says, "The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living." So Adam, we saw that he got to name the animals And here, Adam got to name his wife.

  11:10-11:19

  So husbands, let me ask you, if it were up to you, what would you name your wife?

  11:21-11:23

  This is a really smart room.

  11:26-11:32

  I want you to notice that nobody shouted out any suggestions, but there's a lot of men shifting and sweating right now.

  11:33-11:34

  Smart. You're smart.

  11:36-11:36

  You're smart.

  11:39-11:40

  Anyways, back to Adam.

  11:40-11:41

  He got to name her.

  11:42-11:44

  And he named her Eve.

  11:45-11:46

  You know what Eve means?

  11:47-11:48

  It means life.

  11:50-11:51

  And that is so significant.

  11:52-11:58

  As God just pronounced death on them, Adam named his wife Life.

  11:59-12:00

  Like, why would he do that?

  12:01-12:07

  Well, first of all, the command to multiply and fill the earth was not voided because of the fall.

  12:08-12:11

  And this, Adam, he believed what God said.

  12:12-12:19

  Back in verse 15, God said that one of Eve's offspring was going to crush the serpent.

  12:20-12:26

  And what you see here is Adam, bless you, believing the Word of God.

  12:27-12:30

  Because remember, at this point in history, no one was born yet.

  12:31-12:38

  So the very fact that Adam names his wife, "wife", demonstrates that Adam believed God.

  12:38-12:42

  In other words, it demonstrates that Adam had faith.

  12:43-12:44

  You know, faith is the same for us.

  12:45-12:56

  Even though, as I said, we live on the other end of the timeline, even though that we are on the other side of the cross and the tomb, faith is the same thing for us.

  12:57-13:12

  And I'd like to remind you, when it comes to faith, whether it's our faith or Adam's faith, everybody who is saved, everybody who is in heaven or ultimately will be in heaven, it's thanks to Jesus Christ, okay?

  13:13-13:18

  We look back on what God accomplished in the past and our faith is based on a past event.

  13:19-13:24

  The person, our faith is on the person, but we're looking at what he did in the past.

  13:24-13:27

  You see in the Old Testament, they were looking ahead.

  13:27-13:35

  Their faith was based on what God would do in Jesus, just as our faith is based on what God has done in Jesus.

  13:35-13:42

  But everybody in heaven is walking around there because of Jesus Christ, glorifying him, all right?

  13:43-13:50

  But appropriating that salvation, our part of that is faith, and that is believing God's promise.

  13:52-13:53

  Like, well, what does it mean to believe?

  13:53-13:55

  Evan, would you bring me a chair up, please, buddy?

  13:56-13:59

  Like, what does it mean to believe?

  13:59-14:01

  Thank you very much.

  14:01-14:02

  You da man.

  14:02-14:05

  And this is where a lot of people miss it.

  14:06-14:07

  What does it mean to believe?

  14:07-14:16

  If you've ever come to me for any type of counseling or talk of any kind, we talk about this, but there's really three levels of belief.

  14:16-14:20

  And the first level is knowing some facts, right?

  14:21-14:29

  Like if I said to you, hey, this chair that Evan brought me will hold an adult that sits down in it.

  14:30-14:32

  Now you have facts, you know something, I told you something.

  14:33-14:34

  That's the first level of belief.

  14:35-14:39

  The second level of belief is agreeing with the facts.

  14:39-14:46

  You know something and the second level is, you know what, yeah, I'll go with that.

  14:46-14:47

  I agree with that.

  14:48-14:49

  That's the second level of belief.

  14:50-14:52

  But see, here's the problem, That's where a lot of people stop.

  14:52-14:56

  And there's so many people sitting in churches that think that that is the requirement.

  14:57-15:00

  That look, I know Jesus died and he rose from the dead.

  15:00-15:02

  You know, I even agree with that.

  15:02-15:02

  I'm not against it.

  15:02-15:05

  I mean, I'm sitting in church, and I mean, I'm not against it.

  15:05-15:08

  But listen, that is not biblical faith.

  15:08-15:10

  You know what biblical faith looks like?

  15:10-15:11

  It's level three.

  15:12-15:13

  It's resting in what I know.

  15:14-15:14

  It's trusting.

  15:16-15:25

  You see, I know that this chair will hold, I agree that this chair will hold me, but it's not really faith until I sit down in a chair and let it hold me.

  15:26-15:33

  In other words, faith biblically isn't really faith until it acts upon what it knows.

  15:34-15:35

  That's faith.

  15:35-15:37

  You have to go all the way like Adam did.

  15:38-15:39

  We know that Adam believed.

  15:40-15:40

  How do we know?

  15:40-15:44

  Because we see right here he acted on God's promise.

  15:45-15:48

  God says he's going to have an offspring, eventually, that's going to crush Satan.

  15:48-15:51

  And Adam's like, "Well, then I'm going to name her Life.

  15:51-16:00

  That's what I'm going to name her because of what is going to happen through our eventual offspring." Do you believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins?

  16:02-16:05

  Do you believe that He rose to give you eternal life?

  16:08-16:10

  Do you believe God's Word?

  16:12-16:16

  It's not enough to just know some facts and nod your head during a sermon.

  16:17-16:21

  Like Adam, you have to go all the way and act on what you know.

  16:22-16:23

  That's what it means to believe.

  16:23-16:33

  And if you say you have faith and it doesn't show up in your life at all, not in your home, not in your workplace, not in your private time, not...

  16:34-16:36

  Jesus Christ doesn't make...

  16:36-16:38

  He doesn't affect any decisions that you make.

  16:38-16:40

  Then you don't have faith biblically.

  16:40-16:43

  Today's the day that can change for you.

  16:43-16:50

  Today's the day that spiritually maybe you can sit in the chair instead of just knowing some facts about a chair, all right?

  16:50-16:51

  Believe God's promise.

  16:51-16:54

  Secondly, second foundation of faith is receive God's provision.

  16:55-16:56

  Receive God's provision.

  16:56-16:57

  Look at verse 21.

  16:57-17:09

  It says, "And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife "garments of skins and clothed them." Remember we talked about grace in the beginning?

  17:09-17:10

  This is grace.

  17:11-17:12

  God should have killed them.

  17:13-17:13

  And what did He do?

  17:14-17:14

  He covered them.

  17:15-17:16

  That's grace.

  17:16-17:25

  Quick review, back in chapter 2, verse 25, before the fall, it says that they were naked and not ashamed, never had a thought about it.

  17:25-17:31

  But then after they sinned, chapter 3, verse 7, it says they were naked and ashamed.

  17:32-17:33

  And we talked about that.

  17:33-17:39

  There's a certain shame that's tied into sexuality that came as a result of the fall.

  17:39-17:46

  and now the only two people on the planet who had only ever seen each other naked, now all of a sudden they have to cover themselves up.

  17:48-17:52

  This is what we said about that, what we saw from God's Word.

  17:53-18:00

  They made loincloths out of fig leaves, the Bible says.

  18:01-18:15

  And I asked you, "How long do underpants made out of leaves last?" And I also said that man's attempts to cover shame are futile, but sin always makes us want to try.

  18:16-18:25

  And I wanted to remind you of those things, because right here it says that God made them permanent coverings out of animal skins.

  18:26-18:33

  Look at the language used in God's Word, "skins." You know what that means? You know why that's important?

  18:34-18:37

  God didn't use wool. See the difference?

  18:38-18:46

  God didn't grab a sheep and some clippers, say, "I'm going to make you a nice sweater." See, a sheep can donate to wool without dying.

  18:46-18:50

  But an animal can't donate skin and live.

  18:51-18:52

  You see what's happening here?

  18:53-18:54

  Is it connecting?

  18:57-19:01

  God killed an animal to make a covering.

  19:02-19:05

  for Adam and Eve's sin and shame.

  19:07-19:08

  You're seeing a connection?

  19:10-19:12

  But you've got to stop here for a second and think.

  19:13-19:16

  God killing an animal, what do you think that looked like to Adam and Eve?

  19:17-19:20

  Because at this point, they'd never seen anything like that.

  19:21-19:22

  Never.

  19:23-19:27

  Everything was beautiful and harmonious and life and...

  19:27-19:27

  What?

  19:29-19:30

  Could you imagine?

  19:30-19:32

  Could you imagine what that looked like?

  19:33-20:08

  You know, last week, my son Cade came to me, and he said, "Dad, one of the chickens is dead." And I'm thinking, like, you know, "Are you sure?" I'm like, "So what's going on?" He goes, "Well, I went up to feed the chickens, and there's feathers everywhere." I'm like, "Well, feathers everywhere doesn't mean a dead chicken." I'm like, "Maybe not." I said, "So there's feathers everywhere." I said, "Are we sure that it's dead?" He's like, "Well, I, um, I, he, I, I..." He goes, "Dad, I don't see a head anywhere."

  20:09-20:09

  (audience laughing)

  20:11-20:13

  I'm like, "Let me get my shoes."

  20:14-20:14

  (audience laughing)

  20:16-20:21

  So I went up to the chicken coop and the door has this wood frame.

  20:21-20:25

  We have like chicken wire on the frame, right?

  20:26-20:31

  and a piece of the chicken wire came detached from the frame, just like a little flat.

  20:31-20:42

  And long story short, something grabbed the chicken and tried to pull it out that hole, but the chicken was bigger than the hole.

  20:44-20:54

  So what the predator decided to do in that moment was eat what it could right there, which was the head.

  20:56-21:04

  and down into the chicken, kind of hollowed it out mostly, couldn't take the rest and just left it.

  21:05-21:07

  Like I was gonna take this meal to go, but I'm gonna eat it.

  21:09-21:10

  Do you know how grisly that was?

  21:12-21:14

  Do you wanna see a picture of that?

  21:14-21:18

  You wanna see, no, you don't wanna see a picture of that, what's the matter with you?

  21:18-21:19

  I just told you how gross it was.

  21:20-21:21

  It was horrifying.

  21:24-21:37

  And I would have said, okay, before you send the nasty emails, like, "That was inappropriate, Pastor Jeff, that you told that story." You're going to go out and you're going to have like 20 chicken wings for lunch and not think a thing of it.

  21:38-21:43

  And some poor little precious starving raccoon eats one chicken and I'm the monster all of a sudden.

  21:44-21:47

  But you see my point, it was a horrific scene.

  21:48-21:53

  And I was thinking about that, like, What do you think that looked like to Adam and Eve when they saw the first death?

  21:55-21:56

  What just happened?

  21:59-22:03

  I mean, they knew of death, but to actually see it is another story.

  22:04-22:06

  What you have to understand, church, is this.

  22:06-22:10

  God making for Adam and his wife garments of skins.

  22:10-22:13

  Do you understand that this is more than about clothes?

  22:15-22:20

  What this is is a profound foreshadowing of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

  22:20-22:43

  And that is this, listen, "Those sinned against God initiated His grace by killing an innocent substitute which provided a permanent covering of their shame, accomplishing what man could not." This, look at your Bible, this was God's idea.

  22:45-22:53

  God chose the animal, and then God killed the animal, and then God covered them with the animal.

  22:54-22:56

  And the cross of Jesus Christ is the same thing.

  22:57-22:58

  It was God's idea.

  23:00-23:02

  God chose the sacrifice again.

  23:03-23:04

  This time it was His Son.

  23:05-23:07

  And then on the cross, God killed Him.

  23:08-23:09

  Make no mistake.

  23:10-23:14

  God was the one who killed him.

  23:15-23:21

  Isaiah 53 tells you that the Lord crushed him for our sin.

  23:22-23:26

  And you see, Adam and Eve, here's the connection, church.

  23:26-24:03

  Listen, Adam and Eve needed to receive God's provision, because their attempt at covering their sin and shame, leafy britches wouldn't last. Right? And I've never tried it, but if you were to sew underpants out of leaves, yeah, when you get them right off the tree, they're kind of soft and, you know, we can work with this, but what happens to a leaf after a couple of days? It shrivels up, doesn't it? What do you think happens if you You have a pair of britches made out of leaves and you sit down.

  24:06-24:07

  Dust, right?

  24:09-24:17

  That was the best Adam and Eve could come up with until God made provision that Adam and Eve had to receive.

  24:20-24:21

  God did all the work.

  24:21-24:24

  Their job by faith was to receive what He provided.

  24:25-24:34

  I suppose, hypothetically, Adam and Eve could have taken the skins off and put their leaves back on.

  24:35-24:39

  And so, you know, hypothetically, it didn't happen, but hypothetically, right?

  24:39-24:50

  They could have said, "You know what, God? Appreciate the gesture, but we're going to do it our way." And how foolish that would have been, and how completely ineffective that would have been, right?

  24:53-25:04

  And if that actually is what happened, I know we'd be sitting here today going, "Man, that was awfully dumb of them to reject God's provision and try to do it themselves.

  25:05-25:06

  That was awfully stupid of them.

  25:07-25:11

  Why would anybody reject God's provision because it was perfect and it was permanent?

  25:11-25:23

  Why would somebody insist on doing things their way?" And as foolish as people might think that notion would be, that still is happening right now.

  25:27-25:34

  There are still people right here that are rejecting God's provision.

  25:35-25:41

  There are still people right here that instead think they can get to heaven their way, like through good works.

  25:42-25:48

  I've done enough good stuff. I've done enough good stuff, Pastor Jeff, and someday when I die, God's gonna look at all the good stuff that I've done.

  25:48-25:52

  You know what your good stuff is? Leafy britches. That's what it is.

  25:53-25:56

  And you're like, "You know what, Pastor Jeff? You see me at church.

  25:56-26:02

  I'm really involved in church. I have pretty good church attendance." And I'm not just like here. I'm like, I actually get involved.

  26:02-26:06

  And someday when I die, God's gonna see that I was involved at the church.

  26:06-26:13

  And when it comes to your salvation, do you know what your church attendance and involvement amount to?

  26:14-26:15

  Tell me.

  26:16-26:17

  Leafy britches.

  26:20-26:21

  Or for some people, it's being a moral person.

  26:23-26:26

  All I know, Jeff, is that really bad people go to hell, but not me.

  26:26-26:32

  Like, I've always tried to do the right thing, Pastor Jeff.

  26:32-26:35

  I've always been kind of a moral person.

  26:35-26:42

  I've never hurt anyone. I'm just, I'm a good person deep down, deep down in my heart, deep down where I'm soft like a woman.

  26:42-26:44

  I've always been a really moral person.

  26:47-26:54

  And some people think they're in here in goodness, which they actually don't have, but they think that that's what's going to get them to heaven.

  26:55-26:59

  Your morality amounts to nothing more than what, church?

  27:01-27:01

  Leafy britches.

  27:03-27:09

  If you're trusting these types of things, any work on your part to save you, it can't do it.

  27:10-27:13

  Like Adam and Eve, listen, here's what you need to do.

  27:13-27:15

  You need to receive the provision that God made for you.

  27:18-27:20

  It's the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.

  27:21-27:25

  And finally, the gospel in the garden, three foundations of faith.

  27:26-27:30

  Last and certainly not least, you've got to believe God's Word, you've got to receive God's provision.

  27:31-27:39

  But then, when you do those things, and when the rubber meets the road, you've got to catch this, you've got to trust God's path.

  27:40-27:41

  You've got to trust God's path.

  27:42-27:48

  We already said that back in verse 15, God made the promise of a Savior.

  27:48-27:51

  And then in verse 21, He provided atonement.

  27:51-28:04

  And now, what you're going to see is God acting— don't miss this, because this is kind of a— if you miss this, you're going to say, "What in the world is going on here?" What God is doing is acting to protect Adam and Eve.

  28:05-28:07

  That's what's happening here. God is protecting them.

  28:07-28:11

  Look at verse 22, because it makes it so clear here. Look at this.

  28:11-28:24

  It says, "Then the Lord God said, 'Behold, the man has become like one of us, and knowing good and evil.'" All right, we talked about this.

  28:24-28:28

  God knows good and evil perfectly, but God is incorruptible.

  28:28-28:32

  And now man knows good and evil, but is thoroughly corrupted.

  28:33-28:34

  Right? We talked about this.

  28:36-28:38

  Look at this. Here's the protection.

  28:39-28:50

  It says, "Now, lest he reach out his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever..." And then he does something, but hang on a second.

  28:51-28:54

  Yes, man knows good and evil, not the same way God does.

  28:54-28:56

  He's incorruptible. We are corrupted.

  28:56-29:03

  But now, here's the point, Adam and Eve saw death when God killed the animal.

  29:06-29:17

  And now they would be tempted to avoid that themselves by eating from the tree of life to live forever.

  29:19-29:21

  Why shouldn't they eat off the tree of life?

  29:22-29:23

  Here's why.

  29:24-29:30

  Because if Adam and Eve ate off of the tree of life in the state that they were in, they would have been eternally evil.

  29:31-29:34

  In other words, they would have been stuck in that state forever.

  29:36-29:37

  And do you know what it's called?

  29:39-29:43

  To be forever stuck in a state of corruption.

  29:43-29:44

  Do you know what that's called?

  29:45-29:45

  That's hell.

  29:47-29:48

  That's hell.

  29:50-29:54

  And you see, God very clearly says, "I don't want that for them.

  29:56-30:11

  I don't want them stuck in this state of fallenness." So, verse 23, "Therefore the Lord God sent them out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which He was taken.

  30:13-30:30

  He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed a cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life." You're like, "What's going on here?" Here's what's going on.

  30:31-30:35

  God drove them out of Eden to prevent permanent harm.

  30:36-30:44

  Interestingly, where it says in verse 24, "He drove them out." That's a very, very strong word in the Hebrew.

  30:46-31:11

  In other words, it wasn't like, "Sir, ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to leave." This was grabbed by the scruff of the neck and the seat of the pants, and "Out! Go! You are not going to be here anymore! Driven out!" And then he posted an armed guard to block the way to the Tree of Life.

  31:13-31:14

  There's no going back there for them.

  31:16-31:27

  And you're like, "Boy, that's bad." And I want us to think about this for a second.

  31:30-31:35

  Adam and Eve were put on a path of suffering.

  31:38-31:53

  And as forceful as God was about this, throwing them out, posting the angel and the sword, as forceful as God was about that, it was for their own good.

  31:57-32:07

  And I want you to see something very clearly, because this is where theology goes so applicational.

  32:07-32:14

  Look at this. God very clearly didn't give them what they wanted.

  32:16-32:23

  He knew if they had access to the tree of life, that that's all they would want.

  32:26-32:38

  God did not give them what they wanted, instead He drove them out to suffer, because that would not only prevent permanent harm, but instead it would bring ultimate blessing.

  32:40-32:44

  And this is a fundamental truth that...

  32:44-32:48

  This is where we need to hit, church. All of us. All of us.

  32:50-32:53

  Listen, we too find ourselves on paths that we don't want to be on.

  32:55-32:56

  Anybody testify to that?

  32:59-33:00

  Can anybody right now say, "Hey, you know what?

  33:01-33:04

  You know what, Jeff? Yeah, I'm on a path that I don't want to be on right now.

  33:05-33:16

  I'm going through some serious pain and some serious suffering, and I don't like this, and I have prayed about this, and I have tried this, and I'm miserable right now.

  33:18-33:23

  And sometimes we too find God not giving us what we want.

  33:24-33:43

  And I just want to ask, church, is it possible that, like Adam and Eve, In this whole story, is it possible that God knows what is better for us than even we do?

  33:44-33:44

  Is that possible?

  33:46-33:52

  Is it possible that what looks like hardship from God is actually a profound act of love?

  33:54-33:54

  Is that possible?

  33:56-33:57

  I suppose we could ask Jesus.

  33:59-34:01

  Do you know before He was crucified, the Bible says He prayed?

  34:03-34:07

  He prayed so fervently that He was sweating blood.

  34:07-34:09

  Do you remember what He was praying for?

  34:10-34:19

  "Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me." Did the Father give Him what He was praying for?

  34:20-34:20

  He didn't.

  34:21-34:28

  Jesus said, "Nevertheless, not My will, but Your will be done." But you have to see, the cup didn't pass from Jesus.

  34:28-34:34

  And instead, He was driven to suffer on the cross.

  34:35-34:39

  So let me ask you, did any blessing come from that?

  34:40-34:43

  Did any blessing come from what Jesus accomplished on the cross?

  34:45-34:47

  Any blessing at all? Can you think of anything?

  34:49-34:53

  Well, if you can't think of one, allow me to submit this one.

  34:54-35:11

  That the blessing came three days later, when the Lamb of God triumphantly emerged from the tomb, defeating death and defeating Satan and defeating sin and guaranteeing our resurrection and eternal life for everyone who would receive Him.

  35:14-35:15

  So you know what that tells me?

  35:18-35:37

  When I look at the garden of Eden, and I look at the garden of Gethsemane, I see that sometimes God doesn't give me everything that I pray for, and instead drives me to a place of suffering.

  35:38-35:40

  But in these cases, it was for ultimate blessing.

  35:41-35:45

  Is it possible that it's going to be a blessing for me?

  35:47-35:59

  I have to trust His path, because the path that God leads me on is always ultimately where I need to be, even if it doesn't look like it in the moment.

  36:00-36:11

  So, you know, in a way, we're still kind of with Adam and Eve, out of paradise and suffering.

  36:12-36:23

  But provision was made for our sin, and we have been adopted by God through Jesus Christ.

  36:24-36:26

  And the story doesn't end there.

  36:27-36:35

  Because next Sunday, I'm going to show you even more of God's grace, because there's even more good news.

  36:37-36:38

  We're heading back to paradise.

  36:39-36:40

  Will you pray with me, please?

  36:40-36:43

  Father in heaven, we thank You for Your Word.

  36:44-36:47

  And we thank You, Father, that we see the foundation of faith.

  36:47-36:55

  Even in the garden, we see belief in Your Word, we see receiving Your provision, we see ultimately it's trusting Your path.

  36:56-37:10

  And Father, right now I pray specifically for those who need to do these things, that there are people, somebody here needs to believe, Not just agreeing, but acting on what Your Word says.

  37:10-37:13

  And the first part of that is receiving Your provision.

  37:13-37:27

  There's somebody here right now, Father, that needs to say, "I'm done trying to think that I can earn my way, or be a good enough person, or do enough good works." They need to receive the provision that You've made in Christ.

  37:27-37:36

  And I pray, Father, that you would open their eyes, and open their heart to receive your provision in Christ.

  37:37-37:41

  And right now, Father, there's a whole lot of us on a path that we really don't want to be on.

  37:41-37:44

  But we see in your Word, Father, it's a key part of faith.

  37:45-37:48

  Adam and Eve went through it, and Jesus Christ Himself went through it.

  37:48-37:55

  Help us to trust you, even when it's hard, even when we don't get all the things that we want.

  37:56-38:04

  Father, teach us what it means to wait on you, and teach us what faith looks like when we trust you with the big picture.

  38:06-38:23

  Father, we are about to stand in worship, and I pray that this is a sweet sound to your ear. As you deserve all praise and glory and honor and power, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Genesis 3:20-24

1. What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
   

2. What is a curse? What does it mean that disobedience to God results in a curse from God? What does this have to do with Jesus? See Galatians 3:10-13
   

3. What is faith? How did Adam demonstrate faith (Gen 3:20)?
   

4. Explain the significance of God clothing Adam and Eve with skins (Gen 3:21).
   

5. Why did God drive Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:22)? How was this actually a blessing for them?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Under a Curse

Introduction:

Cursed By God: The Consequences of Sin (Genesis 3:14-19):

1. To the serpent: Defeat . (Gen 3:14-15)
2. To the woman: pain at Home . (Gen 3:16)

   Genesis 4:7 - And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.

3. To the man: pain at Work . (Gen 3:17-19)

What does this have to do with Good Friday?

Galatians 3:10-13 - For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them." Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for "The righteous shall live by faith." But the law is not of faith, rather "The one who does them shall live by them." Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  00:54-00:56

  Turn to Genesis 3 if you haven't already.

  00:57-01:04

  You know, there's something about Good Friday that we feel something.

  01:05-01:05

  You know what I'm talking about?

  01:07-01:11

  It just feels different than like a Sunday morning service, you know?

  01:13-01:16

  And that's natural, I suppose.

  01:17-01:31

  And I'll never forget the woman, when I was at North Street, we were doing some evangelism in downtown Butler, and I'll never forget the woman we were sharing the gospel with, who told us that the worst thing that ever happened in history was they got Jesus.

  01:32-01:43

  I'm like, "What do you mean?" And she said, "He was the most amazing teacher that there was, and he was doing so much good." And the woman literally started tearing up.

  01:44-01:48

  And she said, "They got him. They killed him." And she starts weeping.

  01:49-01:51

  And she said, "Think of all the good he could have done.

  01:51-01:53

  If only they hadn't killed him!

  01:54-01:55

  They got poor Jesus.

  01:57-02:02

  And we lovingly tried to explain to her God's plan.

  02:04-02:08

  But she was so emotionally distraught, I'm not sure how much she hurt.

  02:11-02:12

  But my point in that is this.

  02:15-02:20

  Even if your theology doesn't match hers, I think sometimes we can come to Good Friday service with the same sentiment.

  02:23-02:36

  That we feel, and again it's natural, when you think Jesus on the cross, we think of this innocent man who was betrayed by one of his best friends.

  02:37-02:47

  And he was arrested, and he was falsely accused, And He was killed in the most horrific manner a human being can be executed.

  02:48-02:51

  We feel the heaviness of that.

  02:53-03:06

  But we can't simply just reduce the cross to sympathy, because it's so much more than that.

  03:07-03:10

  It's so far deeper than that.

  03:11-03:21

  And truth be told, a lot of people have suffered and died over human history, and a lot of people have been executed the same way that Jesus was executed.

  03:21-03:26

  So why did we gather here tonight to lift our voices up for this one?

  03:28-03:39

  Well, if you're visiting with us tonight, if you're watching the stream for the first time, our church is in a series right now called Foundations, and it is a Theology 101 series.

  03:40-03:44

  And on Sunday we talked about how sin entered the world.

  03:45-03:51

  One tree, one law, one temptation, and one transgression.

  03:52-04:06

  We saw Adam and his wife doubt the Word of God, and then believe the lie to deny the Word of God, and ultimately to disobey the Word of God.

  04:08-04:15

  We saw Adam and his wife run from God, hide in shame, and blame everyone else.

  04:17-04:19

  And you know not much has changed.

  04:22-04:33

  Not much has changed in the way that sin manifests itself, and not much has changed in the consequences of sin.

  04:34-04:37

  And you know sin has natural consequences, right?

  04:38-04:40

  There are natural consequences just built into it.

  04:41-04:50

  For example, if you lie, and people catch your lie, and they will, eventually they won't trust you.

  04:51-04:52

  That's a natural consequence.

  04:53-04:57

  Or if you have an anger problem, people aren't going to want to be around you.

  04:58-05:00

  That is a natural consequence.

  05:01-05:08

  If your sin is sexual in nature, you could destroy families.

  05:12-05:13

  It's a natural consequence.

  05:14-05:21

  If your sin is addiction, that leads to a whole lot of natural consequences.

  05:23-05:27

  It can lead to stealing, it can lead to health issues, it can lead ultimately to death.

  05:29-05:36

  So yeah, sin has natural consequences, but there's so much more than just the natural consequences of sin.

  05:36-05:38

  Sin brings a curse.

  05:40-05:43

  And that's what I want to talk about tonight.

  05:44-05:45

  I want to talk about the curse.

  05:46-05:51

  Right now somebody's thinking, "Am I in the right church?

  05:52-06:07

  Because this sounds like it's going to get weird." Well, if you've thought that, it's because you've had this association of curse with voodoo or the occult.

  06:08-06:09

  But do you know what the word "curse" means?

  06:10-06:16

  It literally just means to pronounce a curse on someone.

  06:17-06:18

  That's what it means.

  06:21-06:23

  Some of us curse people all the time.

  06:24-06:30

  when we say things like, "Damn you!" You're pronouncing a curse.

  06:32-06:40

  Or to say that another way, when you say, "Go to hell!" That is a horrible, horrible thing to say to someone.

  06:42-06:45

  When you do, you're pronouncing a curse.

  06:45-06:46

  You're saying, "I wish you harm!

  06:48-06:51

  I wish that God would condemn you!" It's horrible.

  06:54-06:58

  And when you look at God's Word, you know the Bible is full of curses, right?

  06:58-07:02

  There is Balaam, he was a professional cursor, right?

  07:03-07:05

  You have Goliath, who was cursing Israel.

  07:06-07:06

  You even have Peter.

  07:08-07:14

  You remember when Peter was denying that he even knew who Jesus was, and he kept getting pressed on that.

  07:14-07:19

  The Bible says, "He called down curses on himself." Do you understand what that means?

  07:19-07:26

  That while Peter was being pressed, He was saying, "May I be damned if I know Him!" Calling a curse on Himself.

  07:27-07:31

  Well, God Himself invokes curses.

  07:33-07:35

  And this is what I want you to see tonight.

  07:37-07:49

  Because if you don't see this, you're going to walk out one of these doors, and you're going to say, "Oh, poor Jesus, I should feel sad about that." And it is so much deeper than that.

  07:49-07:50

  But here it is, church.

  07:52-07:58

  Curses from God result from disobedience to God.

  08:00-08:01

  I'm going to say that again.

  08:01-08:06

  Curses from God result from disobedience to God.

  08:06-08:08

  And this all started in Eden.

  08:08-08:10

  And we're picking up where we left off.

  08:10-08:14

  Adam and Mrs. Adam, at this point, they sinned.

  08:14-08:18

  They were called out, they confessed, and now they are cursed.

  08:18-08:27

  So if you're taking notes, which we always encourage you to do, on your outline tonight, "Cursed by God, the Consequences of Sin." Alright?

  08:29-08:34

  Write this one down. First of all, letter A, "To the Serpent's Defeat." Look at verse 14.

  08:35-08:44

  It says, "The Lord God said to the serpents, 'Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field.

  08:45-08:52

  On your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life." Stop there.

  08:53-09:00

  God here puts a curse on the animal that Satan used to tempt Eve.

  09:01-09:08

  And we have to ask ourselves, "Well, what did the snake look like before this?" It looked like a dragon.

  09:09-09:19

  You're like, "Well, how do you know that?" Because in Revelation 20, in verse 2, Satan is called a serpent and a dragon.

  09:21-09:23

  And that's really what a dragon is, right?

  09:24-09:26

  It's a snake with arms and legs.

  09:27-09:28

  Not anymore.

  09:30-09:33

  This was part of the curse, even on the animal that Satan used.

  09:33-09:42

  And you're like, "Well, why would God curse the poor animal?" As if there's somebody here saying, "Oh, the poor snake." But why would God curse the animal?

  09:43-09:45

  The reason was to turn it into a symbol.

  09:46-09:59

  You know, God says you'll have no arms, and you'll have no feet, which means the serpent was disarmed and defeated.

  10:01-10:04

  That was a really bad dad joke, I know.

  10:05-10:08

  I thought I'd float it out there and it got the response I was expecting.

  10:11-10:13

  You can thank Jillian for sending me that one.

  10:15-10:16

  See, I blame just like Adam.

  10:18-10:19

  But here's the point, church.

  10:20-10:22

  Satan's goal was exaltation.

  10:23-10:26

  He wanted to exalt himself above God.

  10:27-10:29

  And God put a symbol on the serpent.

  10:29-10:30

  Nah, he doesn't do that.

  10:30-10:31

  He brought him down.

  10:32-10:36

  That's why he says, "You will eat dust." That's a euphemism.

  10:36-10:37

  That means you will be defeated.

  10:37-10:41

  You see it again in the Bible, Psalm 72, Isaiah 49.

  10:41-10:43

  Like you will be defeated.

  10:44-10:45

  You thought you were going to exalt yourself?

  10:46-10:47

  Not going to happen.

  10:48-10:56

  And just as the rainbow is a reminder that God will never flood the earth again, a snake is a reminder that Satan is defeated.

  10:57-10:58

  Look at verse 15.

  10:59-11:18

  It says, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel." Enmity. Enmity, Satan, between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring.

  11:18-11:59

  You're like, "Wait, wait, wait, wait. Satan has offspring? Well, we know that Satan doesn't give birth, but Satan does have children, right? Jesus said that in John 8.44. What between them. You see when Satan tempted Adam and Eve, tempted Eve rather, and Adam was with her, when he tempted her, and he got Adam and Eve to transgress God, Satan thought, "Now they're friends with me, and they're enemies of God." And God here was saying, "I'm going to change that.

  12:01-12:17

  I'm going to flip that around to the extent that some days, he says, "He," talking of one of Eve's future offspring, "He shall bruise your head, you shall bruise his heel." This is the first announcement of the gospel.

  12:19-12:34

  Right after the fall of man, the first thing God says out of the gate is, "There's a Savior coming." Notice it's a specific "He." He, one of this woman's offspring in particular, Satan is going to defeat you.

  12:35-12:38

  And yeah, Satan had a minor victory.

  12:38-12:40

  That's the bruising the heel.

  12:41-12:44

  Satan had a minor victory, and that was the death of Jesus Christ.

  12:45-12:50

  But that was the means by which he was ultimately going to be crushed.

  12:51-13:00

  In other words, you're going to bite his heel, But your head's going to be close enough to his foot that he's going to stomp you out.

  13:01-13:06

  So to the serpent God says, "Defeat. That's your curse. You are defeated.

  13:07-13:12

  Let her be to the woman, pain at home." Pain at home.

  13:13-13:19

  Verse 16, it says, "To the woman," again this is the Lord speaking, He's talking about the consequences of sin.

  13:20-13:27

  It says, "To the woman, He said, 'I will surely multiply your pain and childbearing.'" In pain, you shall bring forth children.

  13:28-13:42

  Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." You see, women are cursed to suffer in the two most important relationships that they have with their children and with their husband.

  13:43-13:48

  First of all, the Lord says, "I will multiply pain and childbearing." Is there anybody that can give testimony to that?

  13:50-13:50

  Is that true?

  13:51-13:52

  I mean, I've heard.

  13:54-13:56

  I don't think I have to sell anybody on that.

  13:57-14:05

  But he says, "Your desire shall be for your husband." And that's an interesting phrase, because you can look at that and think, "Well, that's good, right?

  14:05-14:11

  Because shouldn't a woman desire her husband?" This isn't a positive thing here.

  14:11-14:12

  This is actually negative.

  14:13-14:15

  The word means literally this.

  14:15-14:18

  It means to seek control.

  14:19-14:23

  This exact wording is used one other place in the Old Testament.

  14:24-14:27

  It's in the very next chapter, in Genesis 4, verse 7.

  14:29-14:37

  The Lord says to Cain, "If you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door." Look at this.

  14:37-14:50

  "Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it." It means, literally, desire to have control over.

  14:51-14:55

  The Lord's telling Eve that there's going to be an authority struggle in the home.

  14:56-15:07

  This next phrase, it says, "He shall rule over you." You can't miss this because "He shall rule" in the Hebrew, that's not a nice term.

  15:10-15:15

  He's going to be a wonderful protector head of the home.

  15:15-15:18

  That "He shall rule" is a very harsh term.

  15:18-15:19

  That's a dictator term.

  15:21-15:22

  What does that mean?

  15:23-15:24

  It means this.

  15:25-15:42

  To the woman, the Lord said, "You're going to have desire to have control over Him, but He's going to misuse His authority over you." There's going to be pain and conflict in what was a harmonious relationship.

  15:43-15:46

  And I won't ask anybody to shout out if they can give testimony to that.

  15:47-15:51

  But that is a reality to some degree in every marriage.

  15:52-15:54

  You see, the woman took the lead in the fall.

  15:55-15:57

  She acted independently from Adam during the temptation.

  15:58-16:03

  And that rebellion against God's ordained roles is going to be permanent.

  16:05-16:06

  That's why you see it in homes.

  16:07-16:13

  That's why you see a husband and wife not on board with finances, which I hear is the number one cause of divorce.

  16:14-16:18

  That's why when it comes to family direction, husband and wife not on board.

  16:20-16:24

  That's why when it comes to worship, husband and wife oftentimes not on board.

  16:25-16:26

  It's part of the curse.

  16:28-16:33

  This is what the natural, sinful direction is going to be because of sin.

  16:35-16:38

  and let her see to the man pain at work." Pain at work.

  16:38-16:39

  Look at verse 17.

  16:40-16:50

  It says, "And to Adam he said, 'Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it.

  16:51-16:52

  Cursed is the ground because of you.

  16:53-17:05

  In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life.'" See the Lord was saying to Adam, "Hey, you chose to do what she wanted instead of what I want it.

  17:06-17:12

  Adam, you were more concerned about her than you were about me." He says, "So cursed is the ground.

  17:13-17:24

  And just as the curse hits woman where she lives, curse hits man where he lives, and that's the workplace." Now, kids, work was pre-fall.

  17:24-17:27

  We just had a whole sermon about that recently at our church.

  17:27-17:28

  Work was pre-fall.

  17:28-17:30

  Work was not part of the curse.

  17:32-18:10

  The curse is the Lord saying, work is going to be hard. Hard work is going to consume your life. And I gotta tell you in this culture this is kind of a hard sell because honestly we have it way too good here. But I would encourage you to go visit some of our friends in Thailand. Go visit some of our friends in Nepal where it's a daily really struggle to make sure that we are planting, and we are cultivating, and we are harvesting, and we are breaking our backs to put food on the table for our family.

  18:11-18:13

  It's a lot harder there.

  18:14-18:15

  Look at verse 18.

  18:16-18:24

  The Lord continues, "Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field.

  18:26-18:41

  By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread "Return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return." Judgment on creation itself, thorns, thistles, sweat.

  18:41-18:49

  You're going to be working hard at them, and the very ground is going to be fighting back against you.

  18:50-18:52

  The ground itself is cursed. Have you noticed that?

  18:54-19:00

  Have you noticed that the ground produces all by itself, but never food?

  19:01-19:01

  Right?

  19:03-19:04

  Like, what do you mean by that? Here's what I mean.

  19:04-19:06

  Go clear a lot somewhere.

  19:07-19:09

  Just get a plot of land and clear it.

  19:10-19:12

  Don't touch it. And come back in a year.

  19:13-19:15

  Are you going to find an apple orchard there?

  19:16-19:18

  Are you going to find green beans growing?

  19:18-19:19

  No. What are you going to find? Tell me.

  19:20-19:23

  Weeds, right? Lots of weeds.

  19:24-19:25

  That's the curse.

  19:26-19:46

  God says, "Adam..." Just paraphrasing verse 19, He says, "You came from dirt, and you're going to work really hard in the dirt, and eventually you're going to be dirt again." So, "Adam, the Lord saying, 'You and your wife chose to ignore Me.

  19:47-19:58

  You chose to disobey me, so now life is short and difficult." There was one law in the garden. You know that?

  19:59-20:04

  One thing. One prohibition. Just one.

  20:06-20:09

  And man failed. And we're cursed.

  20:11-20:15

  And all these things that we see here, you can see it today, can't you?

  20:16-20:20

  Man failed. Man's cursed.

  20:22-20:25

  Well, you can fast forward in your Bible to the days of Moses.

  20:26-20:31

  And there, God gave the Old Testament law, also called the Mosaic law.

  20:32-20:36

  It's laid out in your Bibles in the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

  20:37-20:41

  And it turned into a lot more than one law, than one rule.

  20:43-20:47

  We're not going to turn there now, but Deuteronomy 27 and 28, check it out sometime.

  20:48-20:49

  Pretty detailed list.

  20:50-20:55

  Disobey, cursed. Disobey, cursed. Disobey, cursed.

  20:55-20:58

  Don't do this or you're cursed. Don't do this or you're cursed.

  20:59-21:03

  Don't do this...

  21:13-21:16

  God results in curse from God.

  21:18-21:21

  So you're like, what does this have to do with Good Friday?

  21:23-21:30

  You know, I came in here tonight thinking I was going to hear something about Good Friday, and we've been in Genesis.

  21:31-21:36

  What does all of this talk of curse have to do with Good Friday?

  21:38-21:41

  Galatians chapter 3, look at this very closely.

  21:42-21:49

  Paul writes, "For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse.

  21:50-22:02

  For it is written, 'Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them.'" Do you see what he's saying?

  22:02-22:13

  He's saying if it is your goal to be righteous by obeying God's Word, you're going to end up under a curse.

  22:14-22:14

  Why?

  22:15-22:16

  Because you have to do it all.

  22:17-22:19

  And you have to do it all perfectly.

  22:20-22:37

  That's why he says, "Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith." He says, "But the law is not of faith, rather the one who does them shall live by them." Same point.

  22:38-22:50

  He's saying if you think you're going to obey God, and that's going to be the means of your salvation and your righteousness, you're going to end up under a curse, because none of us can do it.

  22:52-22:56

  So you're saying that we're all under a curse, is that what you're saying?

  22:57-22:57

  Yeah.

  22:59-23:53

  Not only did we inherit the sin nature of Adam, but we've chosen at some point in our lives to disobey the Word of God. And according to the Word of God, that puts us under a curse. Here it is. Look at this. It says, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree." Under the Old Testament law, when a lawbreaker, when a criminal was executed, usually by stoning, they would take his body and they would hang it on a tree for everyone to see as an example.

  23:55-24:00

  Say, "Look, this is what happens when you disregard the Word of God.

  24:00-24:06

  Everybody take a good look." And that criminal wasn't cursed by being hanged on a tree.

  24:07-24:11

  He was hanged on the tree because he was cursed.

  24:12-24:15

  And this is Paul's point here in Galatians.

  24:17-24:22

  And if you try to be righteous by keeping the law, you end up cursed because you can't keep it.

  24:24-24:25

  Have you ever broken a commandment?

  24:26-24:27

  Have you ever stolen anything?

  24:29-24:30

  Have you ever committed adultery?

  24:31-24:34

  Which by the way, Jesus said lusting is the same as committing adultery.

  24:35-24:37

  Have you ever murdered someone?

  24:38-24:42

  By the way, Jesus said hating someone was the same as murder.

  24:44-24:45

  Have you ever disobeyed your parents?

  24:47-24:48

  Have you ever told a lie?

  24:49-24:54

  We're all cursed by nature and we can't work our way out of it.

  24:56-25:12

  But on the cross, Jesus in taking our sin on himself became a curse for us.

  25:13-25:32

  Do you understand now why we can't just look at Jesus on the cross and say, "Oh, they got Him, the poor man." Do you understand now why this is so much deeper than Jesus being just some martyr for some cause.

  25:32-25:45

  This is God in the flesh, perfectly innocent, laying down His life so that He could become A curse for us.

  25:46-25:48

  You know the ultimate curse is hell, isn't it?

  25:49-25:53

  The ultimate curse is being separated from God.

  25:53-25:54

  That's what hell is.

  25:55-25:57

  Being eternally separated from Him.

  25:58-26:10

  And do you know, while Jesus was on the cross, He experienced the full pain of hell.

  26:11-26:13

  which is why he cried out, right Dan?

  26:13-26:28

  "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" He said that not only to fulfill the Scripture, but because he was literally experiencing the pain of hell, the pain of separation from God.

  26:29-26:48

  That's why Jesus is different than every other person who's ever been executed, every other person that's ever been crucified, because the infinite suffering that should come on us, God's wrath against our rebellion, you see Jesus stepped in and He said, "Let that be on Me.

  26:50-27:11

  I will take that so that whoever believes in Me will never have to." And when you see Jesus on the cross, and you realize that He took the curse that's on Me, He took that on Himself, What we should be thinking maybe is, "That should have been me.

  27:12-27:13

  I should have paid.

  27:16-27:23

  I deserve to experience God's wrath for my sin, but Jesus took my place.

  27:24-27:25

  Jesus took my curse.

  27:27-27:30

  So now because of Him, I'm no longer cursed.

  27:32-27:33

  Has He taken yours?"

Small Group Discussion
Read Genesis 3:14-19

1. What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
   

2. What is a curse? What does it mean that disobedience to God results in a curse from God? What does this have to do with Jesus? See Galatians 3:10-13
   

3. What is faith? How did Adam demonstrate faith (Gen 3:20)?
   

4. Explain the significance of God clothing Adam and Eve with skins (Gen 3:21).
   

5. Why did God drive Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:22)? How was this actually a blessing for them?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

The Fall of Man

Introduction:

The Origin and the Pattern of Sin (Genesis 3:1-13):

1. Sin starts when we Disregard God's Word. (Gen 3:1-6)
   1. You Doubt the Authenticity of God's Word. (Gen 3:1-3)
   2. You Deny the Accuracy of God's Word. (Gen 3:1)
   3. You Disobey the Authority of God's Word. (Gen 3:4-6)

2. Sin brings shame when we try to Disguise . (Gen 3:7)
3. Sin causes us to Disengage from God. (Gen 3:8-10)
4. Sin makes us want to Deflect guilt. (Gen 3:11-13)

   Romans 5:12 - Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned...

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  00:55-00:57

  Amen. Genesis chapter 3, are you there?

  00:57-01:00

  You're like, yeah, you asked us to turn there like 10 minutes ago.

  01:00-01:02

  Found it right near the beginning.

  01:03-01:08

  Did you know I almost died several years ago?

  01:09-01:12

  Like, I don't mean like exaggeration.

  01:12-01:15

  I mean literally almost dead.

  01:17-01:21

  Some of you know this story, but actually Aaron and I were both at the gym.

  01:21-01:31

  I was in the men's locker room, Aaron was in the women's locker room, so we weren't together, but I remember exercising and going at it hard that day.

  01:31-01:34

  I don't know why I was so motivated, but I was going at it hard that day.

  01:34-01:47

  I'm telling you, Jonathan, it was like the treadmill hard, and it was the weights hard, and I used to be in shape, honest, and I was going hard, and then, so I was getting ready to hit the showers, and I just did not feel right at all.

  01:48-01:53

  Like, sick to my stomach, and I was like, I could barely stand.

  01:53-01:55

  It was like I could fall asleep on my feet.

  01:55-02:02

  And it was just, I'm like, I must have gone too hard or something.

  02:02-02:04

  I'm like, shower make me feel better.

  02:04-02:05

  A shower did not make me feel better.

  02:06-02:10

  And I remember getting dressed and I'm like, there is something seriously wrong with me.

  02:10-02:15

  And I went and pounded on the door to the ladies locker room and Aaron was just finishing up.

  02:15-02:19

  And I said, there is something seriously wrong with me.

  02:20-02:21

  and I have no idea what it is.

  02:22-02:28

  And she's like, "We're gonna get you to hospital." But the locker rooms were downstairs on this huge flight of steps and I could barely move.

  02:28-02:36

  So she kind of put her shoulder under my backside and like shoved me up the steps and got me to the hospital.

  02:36-02:38

  At the hospital, they immediately took me back.

  02:38-02:43

  I mean, there was no waiting in the waiting room, which tells you how bad I was at this point.

  02:43-02:45

  I was fading in and out of consciousness.

  02:46-02:49

  And it was just like off and on and off and on.

  02:50-02:53

  and they had no idea what was going on.

  02:55-03:14

  And I just remember as I was fading in and all these doctors and nurses and everybody running in, at one point I do remember saying, you know, between the one weight room and the locker room, I thought I got a slight smell of gas.

  03:15-03:26

  And they're like, "Oh, oh, oh!" They're like, "Well, I, and I, unfortunately I do remember this." They're like, "We're gonna do a blood gas test.

  03:26-03:27

  You know what a blood gas test entails?

  03:27-03:33

  They take a needle the size of a McDonald's straw and stick it in your wrist.

  03:35-03:42

  Oh, oh yeah, it's much worse than that." And then they get a, but that's how they do the blood gas test and they had to do several of those.

  03:42-04:18

  And, but I just, I do remember them sticking one of those plastic tubes with the oxygen up my nose, and the doctor coming in smiling, and he says, "I have great news for you." He says, "You have a lethal level of carbon monoxide in your system." And I'm like, "Waiting for the good news here!" You know, because when you hear "lethal level" of something, well, he says, "You are healthy enough," and he goes, "Now that we know what the problem is, "get you on oxygen, we're gonna watch you for a while." And I lived to fight another day.

  04:21-04:26

  You're like, "Did you have any long-term effects from that?" I think it did do some things messing up my memory.

  04:28-04:32

  And, why did I tell you this story?

  04:34-04:34

  (audience laughing)

  04:35-04:39

  Oh, this is why I told you that story.

  04:41-04:51

  In order for them to treat me, they had to figure out exactly what was wrong with me, right?

  04:52-05:05

  I mean, at that moment, they didn't know, would it have helped at all if they were bringing in Tylenol, or cough medicine, or Prozac, Or would that have helped at all? No.

  05:06-05:11

  They needed to know exactly what my problem was, so they knew exactly how to treat me, right?

  05:16-05:19

  In Houston, we have a problem.

  05:20-05:24

  Because something is severely messed up, globally.

  05:25-05:26

  Have you noticed?

  05:27-05:51

  People are just bad and horrible, and globally, and I can look at the world, I can turn on the news, and I'm like, "Well, people are messed up." But then I turn it personally, I'm like, "There's something wrong with me." There's something wrong with people, and there's something wrong with me.

  05:52-05:55

  And nobody's arguing that there's a problem, okay?

  05:57-05:58

  They argue the solution.

  05:59-06:07

  Maybe we need more or better or different rehabs, or medications, or therapies, or maybe CRT will help get us in the right direction.

  06:10-06:11

  None of these things are working.

  06:14-06:18

  And all of man's attempts really just amounts to putting a band-aid on cancer.

  06:20-06:21

  We have a problem.

  06:21-06:23

  We have a serious problem.

  06:23-06:29

  We are inherently wicked, bad, selfish people.

  06:31-06:34

  We just are. All of us.

  06:37-06:40

  In the last couple of weeks we've been looking at His Word, and what have we seen?

  06:40-06:44

  We've seen that God created this perfect world, right?

  06:45-06:49

  And then He created woman for man, so He created this perfect relationship.

  06:52-07:01

  And we're like, "Okay, well, perfect environment, perfect relationship, what happened?" Well, Genesis 3 happened.

  07:02-07:03

  Sin entered the world.

  07:04-07:08

  You're like, "Well, what is sin?" Well, there's a lot of definitions, a lot of ways we can define it.

  07:09-07:17

  Today we're just going to call it a personal lack of conformity to the moral character of God or the law of God.

  07:19-07:21

  And now it's a disposition.

  07:22-07:22

  The heart.

  07:23-07:31

  It leads to thoughts and words and actions that dishonor God and His righteousness.

  07:34-07:39

  And this account we're going to look at today, the Garden of Eden scene.

  07:40-07:54

  And I know we've already talked about this, but I feel like if there's somebody new watching or somebody new streaming, I have to say it again, for the person that would ask, "Jeff, do you really believe this is literal, true history?" Absolutely, 100% I do.

  07:57-07:59

  That is how it is presented in the Word of God.

  08:00-08:17

  And, if this Adam wasn't literally true, and what he did literally happened, it's hard to make sense of the second Adam, Jesus Christ, and what he did.

  08:17-08:23

  So yes, I do believe that this is literally true as God told us.

  08:24-08:34

  So not only is it literal history, also this passage is deeply personal, because this shows us how sin started and something else.

  08:34-08:38

  It shows us that there is a definite pattern for sin.

  08:40-08:44

  So on your outline, the origin and the pattern of sin.

  08:44-08:48

  So, write this down. First of all, letter A.

  08:49-08:52

  This is like Theology of Sin 101 today, okay?

  08:52-08:55

  But we've got to get this down, church. We've got to get it down.

  08:56-08:59

  Letter A, sin starts when we disregard God's Word.

  09:01-09:06

  Sin starts when we disregard God's Word.

  09:07-09:14

  Now, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden had one rule.

  09:15-09:18

  Look at chapter 2, verse 16.

  09:20-09:36

  It says, "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'You may surely eat of every tree in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.

  09:39-09:40

  Okay, that's the one rule.

  09:41-09:49

  Now, when it says you shall surely die, literally in the Hebrew, that phrase is, dying, you will die.

  09:52-09:57

  And that's something, this is another reason I believe this is literal history, because this is something I watch every day.

  09:58-09:59

  Dying, you will die.

  09:59-10:00

  Do you know what that means?

  10:01-10:06

  Spoiler alert, when Adam sins, he doesn't just eat the fruit and drop over dead.

  10:06-10:15

  What God said literally was, "Dying you will die." If you transgress, if you disobey, it will begin a process that will end with something.

  10:16-10:21

  In other words, you will die and then die.

  10:23-10:24

  Can anybody give testimony to that?

  10:26-10:26

  Because I sure can.

  10:28-10:28

  Because I'm gonna tell you something.

  10:30-10:31

  I've seen pictures of myself when I was little.

  10:32-10:33

  I was a cute kid.

  10:36-10:39

  And you're thinking the same thing that I ask myself every week.

  10:39-10:48

  I look in the mirror and I say, "What happened?" "You had such a good start." You're in that boat too though.

  10:50-10:51

  Look, no offense.

  10:52-10:53

  We're all in that boat.

  10:54-11:02

  We are all getting old and wearing out and eventually is going to get to the point that we are going to be done.

  11:02-11:03

  Dying, you will die.

  11:03-11:05

  Dying, I am dying.

  11:06-11:06

  Right?

  11:07-11:08

  What is death?

  11:08-11:12

  Well, death in the most generic term, death is separation.

  11:14-11:15

  Right? Death is separation.

  11:16-11:19

  Physically, our soul is separated from our body.

  11:19-11:20

  That's the casket type.

  11:20-11:21

  Death is separation.

  11:21-11:25

  spiritually, death is spiritually being separated from God.

  11:28-11:47

  And anytime you talk about this passage, somebody's going to ask the question, rightly so, justifiably so, "Well, if God didn't want man to eat off of that tree, then?" Go ahead, ask it. "Yes, why did he put it there if he didn't want him to eat it.

  11:50-12:24

  And I don't really think that's such a hard question. The reason God did that is it gave man a choice, right? It gave man a choice. God's like, "Look, here are your options. You can obey me or you can disobey me." You're like, "Well, why does that matter?" Because here's why. If God didn't give them a choice, it could It could have been said that man only obeys God, man only loves God, because man has no other alternative.

  12:24-12:25

  Right?

  12:28-12:29

  That could be said.

  12:29-12:31

  Why does man love you? Why does man obey you, God?

  12:31-12:32

  Because he doesn't have a choice.

  12:33-12:35

  God says there is a choice here.

  12:37-12:46

  We're going to see that Satan enters the scene And his tactics haven't changed.

  12:48-12:49

  That's why we call it the pattern here.

  12:49-12:55

  The tactics that he uses here are the same tactics that he uses today.

  12:55-12:58

  Do you know why he's been using the same tactics for about 6,000 years?

  12:58-13:01

  Do you know why he keeps doing the same things over and over?

  13:02-13:04

  Because they work.

  13:05-13:06

  Doesn't need to change a thing.

  13:07-13:13

  And when we sin, this is really close to home, We get on the same path, right?

  13:14-13:16

  So here it is, step one.

  13:16-13:18

  Sin starts when we disregard God's word.

  13:18-13:20

  Step one, you doubt the authenticity of God's word.

  13:23-13:32

  Look at chapter three, it says, now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

  13:34-13:40

  He says to the woman, did God actually say, you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?

  13:42-13:58

  And a woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" Stop there.

  13:59-13:59

  The serpent.

  14:01-14:03

  We know later from God's Word, this is Satan.

  14:03-14:04

  This is the devil.

  14:04-14:05

  We know that, right?

  14:05-14:08

  Revelation 12.9, Revelation 20.2.

  14:11-14:20

  The serpent, this is Satan, this is an angel, Lucifer, who according to Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, he thought maybe he should be God.

  14:21-14:24

  Like why should the Lord get all the glory?

  14:24-14:25

  Because I'm pretty awesome.

  14:26-14:29

  And not a great road to go down.

  14:33-14:40

  And he attacks this new creation of God.

  14:41-14:44

  And he brings what is the first question in the Bible.

  14:44-14:45

  You realize that?

  14:46-14:49

  Genesis 1 and 2, it's just declaration, declaration, declaration.

  14:50-14:52

  This is the very first question in the Bible.

  14:55-14:56

  Satan's first step.

  14:57-14:58

  Did God really say that?

  14:58-15:02

  I mean, is that what he actually said?

  15:03-15:05

  And that's how sin starts, church.

  15:06-15:08

  That's how it starts every single time.

  15:12-15:21

  It's when we ask ourselves the question, "Did God really say that?" And we begin to doubt the authenticity of God's Word.

  15:23-15:30

  You know, I want to commit this sin, I want to do this thing, but I think it's wrong, I think I shouldn't do it, but wait a minute, wait, wait.

  15:31-15:33

  But is that what God actually said?

  15:33-15:40

  And then we start to ask this question, to justify whatever it is we want to do.

  15:42-15:48

  And you know, Eve's response adds, don't even touch it, right?

  15:48-15:49

  God says, don't eat from the tree.

  15:50-15:54

  Eve adds, yeah, we're not supposed to eat from it.

  15:54-15:56

  We're not even supposed to touch it.

  15:57-15:58

  Like, where did that come from?

  15:58-15:59

  Is that something she made up?

  15:59-16:01

  Is that something Adam said to her?

  16:02-16:03

  we really don't know.

  16:05-16:10

  But regardless, sin, it always starts with doubting and questioning God's Word.

  16:12-16:18

  Step two, not only do you doubt the authenticity of God's Word, you deny the accuracy of God's Word.

  16:22-16:26

  You've got to see this because this is so subtle.

  16:28-16:30

  Look at verse 1. Look at the question again.

  16:32-16:45

  It says, "The serpent said to the woman, 'Did God actually say you should not eat of any tree in the garden?'" Just circle the word "any." Satan's like, "Is that what God said?

  16:47-16:54

  Don't eat of any tree." Now, hindsight's always 20/20, especially hindsight for somebody else.

  16:55-16:59

  But what Eve should have said was, That's not what he said!

  16:59-17:00

  He never said that.

  17:03-17:09

  But you notice the slight little twist that Satan puts on God's command.

  17:12-17:20

  It's close enough to sound kind of right-ish, which makes it completely wrong.

  17:24-17:29

  Satan is committed when we deny the accuracy of God's Word, because listen, close enough isn't enough.

  17:30-17:33

  With this little twist, you see what Satan was doing?

  17:33-17:34

  And this is what's so subtle.

  17:35-17:39

  This little twist was designed to make Eve think that God was restrictive.

  17:40-17:40

  Do you see that?

  17:41-17:44

  God's like, "Here, here's everything.

  17:45-17:52

  Here, the most perfect, beautiful place I created, man and woman in the image of God.

  17:52-17:54

  Here, you have everything.

  17:55-18:00

  God was so gracious in giving, and Satan wanted Eve to think of God in a different way.

  18:02-18:03

  God was restricted.

  18:03-18:06

  Oh, so he said you're not supposed to eat off any of these trees, huh?

  18:07-18:07

  Huh?

  18:10-18:10

  See that?

  18:12-18:32

  And like Eve, we're deceived into thinking - don't miss this Like, I know what God said, but, gosh, don't you think God really just wants me to be happy?

  18:34-18:37

  And we're starting to deny the accuracy of God's Word.

  18:40-18:45

  I thought I knew what he said, but maybe actually he meant something else.

  18:49-18:50

  Not a good path.

  18:51-18:55

  And step three, you disobey the authority of God's Word.

  18:57-18:57

  See the path here?

  18:57-19:00

  You doubt the authenticity of God's Word, you deny the accuracy.

  19:00-19:03

  Now you're disobeying the authority of God's Word.

  19:04-19:22

  Look at verse four, "But the serpent said to the woman, 'You will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.'" That's just, at this point, that's just a flat out contradiction.

  19:23-19:24

  You won't die.

  19:24-19:28

  God just doesn't want you to be like Him, and He knows if you eat from that tree, you're going to be.

  19:31-19:42

  And again, Satan, he's fantastic at making his lies sound kind of right, but at the same time completely wrong.

  19:45-19:46

  He left a big part out.

  19:47-19:54

  You know, when it comes to knowing good and evil, there's a big difference between God and man, you know.

  19:57-20:00

  One of the biggest differences is this.

  20:00-20:01

  God is incorruptible.

  20:02-20:03

  And man is not.

  20:05-20:08

  I heard a preacher say one time, it's like this comparison.

  20:09-20:14

  God knows evil like a sunbeam shining on sewage.

  20:15-20:19

  You realize that the sewage doesn't affect the sunbeam.

  20:19-20:22

  The sewage doesn't make the sunbeam filthy.

  20:24-20:26

  That's how God knows evil.

  20:26-20:30

  Man knows evil like someone drowning in sewage.

  20:32-20:39

  And church, if you're not settled by faith on the authority of God's Word, you have opened yourself up to anything goes.

  20:42-21:16

  In verse 6, it says, "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her," emphasis added, "and he ate." deceived, apparently, from this verse, it seems to me that she sort of dwelled on it.

  21:17-21:17

  Right?

  21:18-21:35

  Like she stood looking at it, thinking about it, thinking about Satan's words more than God's. Huh, you know, that does look good. Sounds helpful. She was deceived.

  21:40-21:48

  And and not deceived, they disobeyed.

  21:49-21:50

  They bought the lie.

  21:51-21:52

  Something's in it for me.

  21:52-21:53

  That's the way all sin is, by the way.

  21:53-21:58

  The root of every single sin, you name any sin, the root of every sin is selfishness.

  21:58-22:03

  It's I want what I want, I don't care what God wants, I don't care how it's going to affect other people, I want what I want.

  22:04-22:05

  The root of sin is selfishness.

  22:06-22:10

  That's why right in the middle of the word "sin" is the letter "I." Right?

  22:10-22:13

  Because I am always in the middle of sin.

  22:14-22:19

  It's always about me and what I want and my preferences, and who gives a rip what anybody else thinks.

  22:22-22:24

  So have you ever walked this path?

  22:25-22:26

  You don't need to raise your hand.

  22:26-22:27

  You don't need to come up and give testimony right now.

  22:29-22:34

  But I just want you to ask yourself, have you ever walked this path or a temptation has come before you.

  22:36-22:39

  Something that initially you were like, "Oh, I should not be doing this.

  22:41-22:47

  I know this is wrong." But you get on this path.

  22:47-22:50

  Like, "Oh, did God really mean that though?

  22:51-22:57

  I mean, I know what He said, but is that really what He meant?" No, no, no. You know what?

  22:57-22:59

  God couldn't have meant that.

  23:00-23:03

  Because that's surely not what I want Him to have meant by that.

  23:04-23:20

  Then we dwell on it and we think it over, and our conclusion is, "Well, I better do what I want to do anyways." The origin and the pattern of sin, it starts when we disregard God's Word.

  23:23-24:01

  Letter B, "Sin brings shame, we try to disguise." brings shame, we try to disguise. Look at verse 7. It says, after eating, it says, "Then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths." The first thing that they noticed after eating was that they were naked. Directly tied into the the very base of sin is a shamefulness connected to sexuality.

  24:04-24:06

  Like, what do you mean by that?

  24:07-24:09

  Look back at 2.25.

  24:12-24:21

  It says, "And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed." This was pre-fall, obviously.

  24:21-24:27

  This was right after creation of woman, the pronouncement of what the marriage relationship was designed to be.

  24:28-24:34

  But it says that they were naked, but they were not ashamed.

  24:35-24:46

  At that point, Adam and Eve didn't know any evil, and they didn't know, get this, that sexual desire could be used for evil purposes.

  24:48-24:50

  And now, all of that's changed.

  24:52-24:55

  And it is still this way until today.

  24:56-25:05

  At the root of sinfulness is a perversion and a shame connected with sexuality.

  25:06-25:08

  You can take any perversion you like.

  25:11-25:18

  Whether it's adultery or fornication or homosexuality or gender confusion or pedophilia or pornography, all of these things.

  25:19-25:21

  The very base of sin.

  25:22-25:38

  Now, the only two people on earth who were naked and innocent, and by the way, up to this point, they only ever saw each other naked, you know that, right?

  25:39-25:45

  Now they have this sense of, oh man, I need to cover myself.

  25:49-25:51

  I need to hide my body.

  25:54-25:56

  Because of the shame that's crept in.

  25:56-25:56

  So what did they do?

  25:57-26:00

  Well, your Bible tells you that they sewed fig leaves together.

  26:02-26:04

  They made loincloths out of fig leaves.

  26:09-26:12

  Now I think I've confessed before you that I'm no biologist.

  26:14-26:17

  I'm also not a botanist and I'm not a seamstress.

  26:19-26:29

  So I'm going to have to call an audible here and ask somebody maybe with more experience than me in this field, how long do underpants made out of leaves last?

  26:34-26:37

  I mean the leaves are kind of soft and pliable at first, right?

  26:37-26:42

  But what happens to a leaf when it's disconnected from the plant for a while?

  26:42-26:42

  What happens?

  26:44-26:45

  Do you see a problem?

  26:49-26:55

  Here's the problem, man's attempts to cover shame fail.

  26:59-27:07

  Somehow sin knows somehow sin, and this is the stupid deception sin always makes us want to try to cover it up.

  27:08-27:24

  That was Adam and Eve here, like, "Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, you're naked!" Like, "Yeah, I have been." Now all of a sudden there's this shame, and we, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, damage control, we can cover this, and we can hide it, and we can fix it.

  27:24-27:30

  Look, look, let's take the leaves, and we're covering up now, and look, look, out of sight, out of mind, problem went away.

  27:33-27:35

  And you're like, yeah, that was pretty stupid of 'em, huh?

  27:35-27:37

  Oh, come on, we still do this stuff, guys.

  27:38-27:39

  We still do this stuff.

  27:40-27:54

  When your pornography's hidden on your computer, when your email's in text from that secret relationship that you're trying to keep hidden from your spouse, you're hiding it, you're covering it, your bottle of addictive something hidden.

  27:57-27:59

  Are you trying to cover something up right now?

  28:01-28:05

  Because your coverup's gonna be about as effective as leafy britches.

  28:06-28:11

  All right, sin brings a shame that we have this, we gotta hide it.

  28:14-28:15

  It doesn't work.

  28:17-28:20

  Letter C, sin causes us to disengage from God.

  28:21-28:21

  Look at verse 8.

  28:22-28:36

  It says, "And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

  28:38-28:46

  The Lord God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?" You think God didn't know?

  28:48-28:51

  You think Adam was like first ever hide and seek champion?

  28:56-28:57

  I don't think so.

  29:00-29:06

  Well Adam replies, verse 10 says, "And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid.

  29:07-29:09

  Because I was naked and I hid myself.

  29:13-29:17

  See this perfect fellowship he had with God was now broken.

  29:18-29:23

  Broken to the point that we were hiding from God in the trees, in the garden.

  29:25-29:30

  And you know, sin makes us do all kinds of crazy things.

  29:31-29:35

  And you know the absolute craziest thing that sin makes us do?

  29:35-29:37

  The craziest thing by far that sin makes us do?

  29:40-29:41

  Running and hiding from God.

  29:42-29:43

  That's the craziest thing.

  29:47-29:48

  People do that today?

  29:50-29:51

  All the time.

  29:53-29:57

  People settle on, "I'm not going to go to church.

  29:57-29:58

  I can't go to church.

  29:58-30:04

  I can't go to church and listen to Jesus Christ be exalted in worship.

  30:04-30:09

  I can't go to church and be praying to the Father in the name of Jesus.

  30:09-30:12

  I can't go to church and hear the Word of Christ proclaimed.

  30:12-30:13

  I can't do it.

  30:13-30:14

  I'm ashamed of myself.

  30:15-30:18

  I can't face God." So people abandon church.

  30:20-30:22

  And I've got to tell you, that's so foolish.

  30:23-30:29

  Because if you're struggling with sin of any kind, who is the only person who can help you?

  30:30-30:30

  Shout it out.

  30:30-30:32

  Who is the only person that can help you?

  30:32-30:35

  Then why are we running from Him?

  30:36-30:38

  That's the shamefulness of sin.

  30:39-30:42

  We need to be running to Him, not away from Him, because He can fix it.

  30:42-30:43

  He has fixed it.

  30:47-30:48

  But we don't want to face up to our guilt.

  30:50-30:53

  Sometimes in church we're just like Adam and Eve, we're hiding in the trees.

  30:57-30:57

  Letter D.

  31:01-31:07

  Sin starts when we disregard God's word, bring shame we try to disguise, it causes us to disengage from God.

  31:07-31:10

  Letter D, sin makes us want to deflect guilt.

  31:11-31:13

  Look at verse 11, deflect guilt.

  31:15-31:17

  Okay, now the Lord speaking again.

  31:19-31:21

  Adam says, "I heard the sound of you in the garden.

  31:21-31:23

  "I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself.

  31:24-31:28

  "So he, God said, Who told you that you were naked?

  31:30-31:41

  Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" Ok, so the Lord asks two more questions, and again, I don't think He was looking for information.

  31:43-31:44

  He was looking for a confession.

  31:46-32:13

  Verse 12, the man says, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, He gave me the fruit of the tree, and I ate." Now this is obviously a very tragic story, but there is one little slight glimmer of something humorous to me in Adam's response, and that is simply this.

  32:13-32:19

  At this point in Adam's existence, he literally knew two others.

  32:20-32:30

  He knew God, and He knew Eve. And when He was confronted over His sin, what did He do?

  32:31-32:39

  He blamed literally every other person that He knew. True or false?

  32:41-32:48

  God's like, "What have you done?" and Adam's like, "Well, now that you bring it up, The woman?

  32:51-32:52

  Notice he says that you gave her.

  32:54-33:05

  That Adam's like, "Look God, I don't want to sound critical, but I'm sure in your sovereignty you noticed that this stuff wasn't happening before you created her.

  33:07-33:08

  I mean I'm not saying, but I'm just saying.

  33:08-33:10

  You know what I'm saying?

  33:10-33:19

  I'm not saying anything God, but you know what I'm saying?" These are pretty quiet and sinless.

  33:22-33:23

  Is that what he did?

  33:23-33:24

  Yeah, that's what he did.

  33:24-33:26

  The woman that you gave me.

  33:26-33:28

  He tried to pin this on God.

  33:30-33:34

  Like, there's got to be some kind of all-time audacity award for that.

  33:39-33:43

  And we too live in a day where nobody is responsible for their actions.

  33:46-33:46

  Right?

  33:48-33:49

  We're confronted about our sin.

  33:50-34:00

  And maybe you haven't said it in the way Adam said it, but you've certainly communicated the spirit of the same type of thing.

  34:01-34:35

  When you say things like this, "I can't help that, that's how I was raised." "Look, I act this way because it's part of my culture." Or, "I have an illness." Or, "I have an addiction." Or, "My therapist said my sin is not my fault." I'm not denying for a second that we've all been, and some of us are currently victims of the sins that other people commit, sometimes directly upon us.

  34:36-34:37

  That is absolutely true.

  34:39-34:41

  But nobody is making choices for you.

  34:42-34:42

  Okay?

  34:43-34:58

  You've got to draw the line somewhere to say at some point, "I'm making decisions, and nobody's responsible for the decisions that I'm making." But my therapist said, "I don't really care what your therapist said.

  34:58-35:09

  I care what God said." Our very popular mantra today actually does blame God.

  35:11-35:13

  In the way that Adam did.

  35:14-35:20

  I'm sure you've heard it before when people say, "I can't help it, I was born this way." Right?

  35:22-35:29

  "I was born this way." Well, look, that's true.

  35:32-35:46

  That's why Jesus said, "You must be born again." So God turns to Eve now and she is a little less deflecting.

  35:49-35:54

  It says, "Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?

  35:57-36:07

  "The woman said, 'The serpent deceived me and I ate.' Okay, what does all this have to do with me?

  36:10-36:10

  And the answer is everything.

  36:13-36:24

  This story, the ramifications, the fallout, the effects of this account literally affects every single second of your life.

  36:26-36:27

  Every single day.

  36:28-36:33

  Because Adam's sin affects the whole human race.

  36:35-36:54

  Romans 5.12 says this, "Therefore just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sin." We are all born dead and dying with a sin nature.

  36:55-36:56

  We're born with that.

  36:58-37:05

  We're born with a propensity to be selfish and disregard the Word, the righteousness, the law of God.

  37:06-37:06

  Don't believe me?

  37:10-37:11

  Take one of these toddlers home with you.

  37:12-37:14

  Go up to harvest kids, get their parents' permission, of course.

  37:15-37:17

  Just take them home with you for the afternoon.

  37:18-37:27

  If you don't believe that we're born with this propensity for selfishness, we all are.

  37:29-37:32

  Like, "Oh man, I see what you're saying Jeff, but you know, I've got a question.

  37:32-37:33

  I wasn't there.

  37:34-37:37

  I wasn't there.

  37:38-37:50

  Why don't I get the same choice that Adam and Eve got?" Adam was the representative of the entire human race at this point.

  37:53-38:00

  And you can not like the choice that he made, but that doesn't change the fact that his choice affected the entire human race.

  38:01-38:01

  Okay?

  38:02-38:05

  You were born a sinner because your parents are sinners.

  38:07-38:11

  And you're like, "Man, you don't talk about my mama that way." Well, hang on a second.

  38:11-38:16

  Your parents are sinners because your grandparents are sinners.

  38:17-38:18

  Like, "Oh man, now you're talking about my grandmama.

  38:18-38:23

  We're going to fight." You trace this all the way back to Adam and Eve.

  38:27-38:28

  And you can't deny the result.

  38:30-38:37

  We're born with a sin nature, self-centered, prideful disposition that lives in the pattern that we just saw in Genesis chapter 3.

  38:37-38:55

  And look, you can redefine it, and you can ignore it, and you can just try to deny the guilt, but the problem remains. There's only one remedy for sin. It's forgiveness.

  38:57-39:26

  The only thing that can fix death is life. So this Friday, we're going to continue in this passage and we're going to talk about the consequences that sin has brought. We're looking at some of the specific curses on the world that's now typified and defined as one of sin and death.

  39:27-39:38

  This Friday we're going to see that just as the first Adam changed everything, we're going to see how the second Adam, Jesus Christ, again, changed everything.

  39:41-39:45

  And you're like, "No, no, no, no, no, you can't stop here.

  39:46-39:46

  Where's the hope?

  39:48-39:53

  Where's the hope?" We're going to get there Friday.

  39:56-40:20

  But the first step that we need to take is to properly diagnose the problem and personalize Only then, only when we do that can we see and embrace the solution that God has graciously provided through His Son.

  40:22-40:22

  Let's pray.

  40:25-40:42

  Our Father in Heaven, it is amazing to me that a passage that so many people deny is is so relevant and obviously illustrated and in my face all the time.

  40:45-40:47

  This is what we see.

  40:47-40:48

  This is the pattern that continues.

  40:52-40:55

  And Father, we all by nature stand before You guilty.

  40:58-41:04

  Because even if we didn't sin in the exact way that Adam and Eve did, We sure found other ways to sin.

  41:05-41:10

  And before You we stand guilty and fallen and wayward and rebellious.

  41:12-41:16

  We gather together to celebrate the fact that You have chosen to love us anyways.

  41:19-41:46

  So I pray, Father, just simply this, I pray this Friday that You would fill this room as we come to not just reflect, but to just so deeply meditate upon and embrace the reality of what the second Adam, Jesus Christ, accomplished through His death on the cross.

  41:46-42:01

  Father, I pray that in the days between now and Friday, You would let us meditate on this section of Your Word so that we have a greater a deeper understanding of this sin problem we all have.

  42:03-42:10

  That dying we will die, but You've made provision for us.

  42:12-42:14

  Thank You, Father, we pray in Jesus' name.

  42:15-42:15

  Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Genesis 3:1-13

1. What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
   

2. Define sin, in your own words, how you would to an unbeliever.
   

3. In Gen 3:5, what did the serpent tell Eve God was withholding from her? In other words, “why was God restricting them”?
   

4. Why do you think we tend to blame others for our sin (Gen 3:12)?
   

5. Why did Satan first cast doubt on God’s Word (Gen 3:1), instead of just flat-out denying God’s Word from the beginning (Gen 3:4)?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

God's Design for Marriage

Introduction:

Genesis 1:1 - In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

God's Design for Marriage (Genesis 2:18-25):

1. Leave for your new priority.
2. Cleave to your wife exclusively.
3. Weave your lives together in unity.

   Matthew 19:6 - So they are no longer two but one flesh.

   Matthew 19:6 - What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.

3 Things to Embrace to Grow in Unity:

1. I keep no Secrets .
2. I do nothing that makes my spouse Uncomfortable .
3. My money is Our money .

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  00:54-00:58

  Open your Bibles up with me please to Genesis chapter 2.

  00:59-01:02

  And we're in a series called Foundations.

  01:04-01:05

  Why Foundations?

  01:05-01:06

  Why this series?

  01:07-01:10

  Because the foundations are under attack like never before.

  01:13-01:19

  You see the Bible says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." And the world says, "No, he didn't.

  01:19-01:22

  or product of evolution, chance, mutations.

  01:25-01:30

  The Bible says that God created them male and female.

  01:30-01:32

  And the world says, no, he didn't.

  01:34-01:34

  Gender is fluid.

  01:35-01:37

  You can be whatever gender you want.

  01:37-01:38

  And how many genders are there now?

  01:39-01:40

  72 or something.

  01:43-01:45

  Can you not see this as a direct attack on the word of God?

  01:47-01:52

  The Bible says marriage is between a man and a woman, and the world says, no, it's not.

  01:53-01:56

  It can be between two men, it can be between two women.

  01:56-02:00

  I've even read articles of people marrying their pets.

  02:03-02:06

  It really is those last two that we're going to focus on today.

  02:07-02:11

  Male and female, and marriage between a man and a woman.

  02:11-02:19

  We're gonna be talking about issues of gender and sexuality and marriage.

  02:25-02:31

  And I've got to be honest with you, I never dreamed I would have to say some of the things that I have to say today.

  02:33-02:45

  Because I've been in ministry now for twenty-some odd years, and yeah, there's been a lot of teaching against evolution, you know, teaching for biblical creation, taking the Word of God straightforwardly.

  02:46-02:48

  I get all that, I've been doing that for decades.

  02:51-02:58

  I never imagined there would come a day that I'd have to stand up and defend the fact that there are two genders.

  03:02-03:23

  That I would have to say, "It's not okay to call a man a woman or to call a woman a man." But unless you've been living under a rock or without TV or internet, kind of envy you if that's you, then you realize this is the hot topic right now, right?

  03:26-03:36

  Pennsylvania swimmer Leah Thomas becomes the first known transgender athlete to win Division I National Championship.

  03:37-03:41

  A man who competed against women.

  03:44-03:49

  Maybe you saw the president insisted that the next Supreme Court justice be a woman.

  03:50-04:03

  And at the confirmation hearings, ironically, this woman couldn't define what a woman is because she's not a, what?

  04:04-04:05

  Not a biologist.

  04:05-04:06

  You saw that, right?

  04:07-04:08

  Isn't that interesting?

  04:08-04:12

  You could go grab any kid up in Harvest Kids right now and say, what's a man, what's a woman?

  04:13-04:14

  And any one of those kids could tell you.

  04:16-04:20

  But we have somebody that's a potential Supreme Court justice who doesn't know.

  04:23-04:25

  Maybe you've been following what's going on in Florida.

  04:26-04:30

  The governor of Florida signed a controversial sex education bill.

  04:30-04:31

  Did you see this?

  04:33-04:44

  This controversial sex education bill forbids instruction on sex orientation and gender identification in kindergarten through third grade.

  04:47-04:49

  I can't believe I have to stand up here and say this.

  04:50-05:01

  That there is intense national scrutiny over this governor who had the audacity to say the teachers shouldn't be teaching sexuality to kindergartners.

  05:02-05:02

  What?

  05:03-05:04

  Why is that controversial?

  05:07-05:08

  Somebody explain that to me.

  05:11-05:29

  I heard somebody say this week, "If it takes a law to stop you from holding a classroom discussion about sex with five-year-olds, you shouldn't be a teacher, and you probably shouldn't be allowed within miles of a school." I could go on.

  05:32-05:39

  But the whole issue of marriage and sexuality has become so, so twisted.

  05:42-05:57

  And I've got to tell you, church, it's real easy for us to kind of step back and be like, "Shame on them perverted sinners." I might have been there at one point.

  06:00-06:07

  But I've got to tell you something that happened to me one time that just completely changed the way I look at these things.

  06:10-06:14

  I was in Walmart, up in Butler of all places.

  06:15-06:17

  Like, "Oh, Pastor Jeff, you shop at Walmart.

  06:17-06:27

  I didn't know you were doing so well for yourself." I was in Walmart and walking through the aisles, I saw a bunch of teenage boys.

  06:28-06:29

  They were kind of laughing.

  06:29-06:32

  And I, look, I was a teenage boy once upon a time too.

  06:32-06:33

  I knew what was going on.

  06:33-06:38

  They were laughing and making trouble.

  06:39-06:54

  And there was something that really, they were really engrossed in making a project for themselves, but I didn't know what it was.

  06:55-07:09

  Until I kept walking, I saw in the next aisle, I saw a person standing, a very tall person wearing a black dress and a black hat and black gloves and black high heels.

  07:13-07:21

  And I made the connection, I'm like, "Those kids are laughing at that girl." But I couldn't put the pieces together as to why.

  07:22-07:29

  So later when I was coming back through the store, I passed what I thought was that woman coming up the aisle.

  07:32-07:33

  And it wasn't a woman, it was a man.

  07:35-07:36

  A cross-dresser.

  07:38-07:44

  And that's what the kids had sort of, they were laughing and throwing their insults or whatever.

  07:47-07:50

  But the look on his face, I will never forget.

  07:52-07:58

  He looked like he was about to burst into just uncontrollable weeping.

  07:59-08:08

  And there was a sense of just absolute despondent misery hanging over this person.

  08:10-08:11

  And that stuck with me.

  08:13-08:18

  Because I thought, "Man, this is what you thought was going to make you happy." And it obviously hasn't.

  08:21-08:33

  So church, I just want to preface this stuff to say, look, as we talk about issues of marriage and sexuality, it's so easy to condemn and to make fun of and to write off.

  08:34-08:40

  And maybe church, we need to seek the Lord on how to reach such people.

  08:43-08:53

  Because maybe there's a lot more of them like that guy that aren't parading it and celebrating it as much as they are maybe trapped by it.

  08:54-08:56

  Maybe living in misery over it.

  08:59-09:00

  People like that need the gospel.

  09:03-09:04

  People like us need the gospel.

  09:05-09:09

  You realize the Bible says that we all like sheep go astray each to his own way.

  09:10-09:14

  And even if you don't sin like that guy in Walmart sin, you have your own sin tendency.

  09:15-09:17

  And you need Jesus Christ just as much as that guy.

  09:18-09:24

  He has made His grace available for you, whether you're watching this, whether you're sitting here.

  09:26-09:29

  Whatever your situation is, His grace is available.

  09:29-09:31

  He died on the cross for your sins.

  09:31-09:33

  He rose from the dead to give you eternal life.

  09:35-09:38

  That's the love of God, and that's the transforming power of the gospel.

  09:41-09:46

  This is the world that our children are inheriting.

  09:47-09:55

  A world that not only denies God's clear plan for marriage, not only can't recognize what a man or a woman is, but insists that you play along.

  09:58-10:00

  So again, church, we're getting back to the foundation.

  10:02-10:06

  The foundation that God created them, male and female.

  10:06-10:11

  The foundation that God designed marriage and all that really matters is what he said about it.

  10:15-10:28

  And before we look at the text, you know, if you're single, I don't want you to feel like you can tune out right now.

  10:30-10:32

  Sometimes God calls people to be single.

  10:34-10:39

  Or maybe your time of no longer being single is just around the corner for you.

  10:40-10:45

  So you're going to want to pay extra special attention to what God has to say about this.

  10:45-11:00

  And if you're divorced, or if you're widowed, we're not denying the pain of a marriage ending for whatever reason.

  11:03-11:12

  All I simply want to do today is take a look at what God's original plan was and is for marriage.

  11:14-11:24

  So, if you are married, or if you're about to get married, this especially applies to you today.

  11:27-11:27

  All right?

  11:28-11:38

  Genesis chapter 2, we're going to pick up in verse 18, but chapter 1 verse 27 says that God created, and on day six, he created them male and female.

  11:40-11:41

  That's Genesis chapter 1.

  11:41-11:48

  Genesis 2 sort of zooms in and gives details like, "Okay, God created them male and female.

  11:48-11:49

  He created humans.

  11:49-11:53

  We better unpack that a little bit." Right?

  11:53-11:55

  And that's what Genesis 2 does.

  11:55-12:00

  Let's pick up in verse 18 in what has been the longest introduction ever.

  12:03-12:04

  You are so gracious.

  12:05-12:11

  Verse 18 says, "Then the Lord God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone.

  12:11-12:15

  I will make him a helper fit for him.'" Stop here.

  12:16-12:21

  At this point, okay, this zooming in, this rewind, it's talking about when it was just Adam.

  12:22-12:25

  There was only one human being created, and it was man.

  12:28-12:36

  But notice in verse 18, God says, "It is not good." when you read the creation account, everything was good to this point.

  12:36-12:38

  It was good, it was good, it was good, it was good.

  12:38-12:41

  And then finally we get here and God says, no, here's something that's not good.

  12:41-12:44

  This is the first negative you could say.

  12:48-12:51

  But it's not saying that something was evil or bad.

  12:53-12:56

  Everything in and of itself was perfect.

  12:58-13:00

  The problem was it just wasn't complete.

  13:01-13:02

  That's what that means.

  13:02-13:12

  God's like, "Okay, everything's good, but this, there's something more that needs to happen here." And he says what it is.

  13:13-13:26

  He says, "It's not good that the man should be alone." Man was created to have relationship, sharing ideas, sharing your emotions, sharing your soul.

  13:27-13:29

  And Adam didn't have a helper.

  13:29-13:34

  He didn't have someone who was, in God's Word, a fit for Him.

  13:35-13:44

  That could also be translated, somebody like Him, somebody corresponding to Him, somebody who is, it can literally mean, worthy of Him.

  13:47-13:48

  So what's the solution?

  13:48-13:49

  Look at verses 19 and 20.

  13:50-14:06

  It says, "Now out of the ground, "the Lord God had formed every beast of the field "and every bird of the heavens, "and brought them to the man "to see what he would call them.

  14:07-14:11

  "And whatever the man called every living creature, "that was its name.

  14:14-14:28

  "The man gave names to all livestock "and to the birds of the heavens "and to every beast of the field, "but for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him." Okay, so what's up with this exercise?

  14:29-14:33

  How many of you think that God had the power and the ability to name the animals himself?

  14:34-14:38

  How many of you think that, some of you don't think God had the power or the ability to do that?

  14:42-14:44

  That was a seeing who's still with me question.

  14:46-14:47

  Most of you passed, very good.

  14:48-14:51

  Yes, God certainly had the power and the ability to do it.

  14:51-14:57

  But you see, this was more than just an exercise and slapping a label on animals.

  14:59-15:01

  This was an object lesson.

  15:04-15:12

  That Adam was supposed to see as he was labeling these animals, that none of them could be suitable helpers for him.

  15:14-15:16

  Now, I'm a dog person.

  15:16-15:25

  How many people here, fellow dog people, have a dog, love dogs, appreciate dogs, realize that's the only unconditional love you're going to get on this side of heaven.

  15:28-15:29

  Do you know why else I love dogs?

  15:29-15:30

  Do you know why I love dogs?

  15:31-15:34

  I talk about my dog from time to time.

  15:35-15:36

  You know why I love dogs?

  15:37-16:03

  Because every time I leave the house for whatever reason, whether it's come to work or go check the mail, it's almost like Aaron takes my dog and says, "Yes, Daddy left and he's dead, and you're never going to see him again." Because that would explain the reaction I get when I come home.

  16:04-16:12

  I walk in the door and every time, like I said, I could be gone for six hours, I could be gone for two minutes.

  16:12-16:19

  I walk in the door and she's like, "You're alive, you're alive!" And she's just immediately like elated.

  16:19-16:20

  And I love that.

  16:21-16:24

  because sometimes that's all I get.

  16:25-16:26

  (congregation laughing)

  16:30-16:34

  But despite all of that, she's not a suitable helper for me.

  16:34-16:37

  I can't really share life with her.

  16:38-16:41

  And you see, God wanted Adam to see that.

  16:42-16:46

  And that's why he had him go over the animals and name every one of them.

  16:46-16:48

  Could you imagine what that looked like?

  16:49-18:23

  That the animals were passing by wanted Adam to name them and I just kind of imagined what that would have been like that Adams like okay this one we're gonna call an elephant and God's like okay what about this one and Adams like we're gonna call this one a parent and God's like okay what about this one and Adams like we're gonna call this one an alligator and God's like okay what are call it a cat. By the way, like I said, God had Adam do this before Eve was created. Do you know another reason why? Because if God had Adam and Eve together name the animals, they'd still be doing it. True or false? Could you imagine how that would play out? God's like, "Okay, here's your next one." And Adam's like, "What do you want to name this one, dear?" And she's like, "Oh, I don't care, whatever you want." He's like, "No, I'd really like you to name this one." She goes, "No, I'm happy "with whatever you want." And Adam's like, "Okay, we'll call it a goose." And Eve's like, "Goose?

  18:23-18:30

  "Are we married to goose for this one?" And Adam says, "Oh no, no, no, we're not married to that.

  18:30-18:36

  "I mean, what do you wanna call it?" And she's like, "Oh, whatever you wanna call it." True or false?

  18:39-18:44

  At this point, Adam was the only one created in the image of God.

  18:44-18:45

  What does that mean?

  18:45-18:51

  That means everything, everything that separates man from every other creature in the world.

  18:53-18:55

  It boils down to this.

  18:56-18:58

  We are created in the image of God.

  18:58-18:58

  What does that mean?

  18:58-18:59

  It means a lot of things.

  18:59-19:01

  It means that we're self-conscious.

  19:02-19:05

  We have awareness of ourselves that animals don't have.

  19:05-19:06

  We have personality.

  19:07-19:08

  We are rational.

  19:08-19:09

  We are creative.

  19:09-19:10

  We appreciate beauty and art.

  19:10-19:11

  We have morality.

  19:11-19:13

  We record laws and history.

  19:14-19:21

  All of that, but first and foremost, it means that we are created to enjoy relationship.

  19:23-19:41

  And that was the purpose of this exercise, that all of these animals were brought to Adam and he saw that not only was he different than every other animal and couldn't really have a personal relationship, but he also would have seen that all of the animals had a male and female pairing.

  19:42-19:47

  everyone, there is a male and female counterpart except for him.

  19:49-19:50

  He would have seen that.

  19:50-20:03

  Like, "Oh look, those two go together, those two go together, those two go together, but there's not one of those counterparts for me." Look at verse 21.

  20:06-20:12

  It says, "So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man.

  20:13-20:22

  And while he slept, he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh." So God performs surgery.

  20:23-20:24

  And this is unique.

  20:24-20:27

  Nothing else in all of creation was created like this.

  20:27-20:30

  And the word for rib literally means side.

  20:30-20:33

  It refers to bone and flesh, according to verse 23.

  20:33-20:34

  We'll see here in a second.

  20:36-21:00

  "The woman was created with material for man." Verse 22 says, "And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, He made into a woman and brought her to the man." So God brought Eve to Adam, again making her out of the material from Adam.

  21:01-21:02

  brought her to Him.

  21:04-21:06

  And you know what Adam's response was, right?

  21:08-21:12

  He said, "Whoa, man." And it's stuck, verse 23.

  21:13-21:17

  It says, "And the man said, 'This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

  21:18-21:39

  She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man.'" and said, "This is a woman." That comes from a Hebrew word that means "soft." I probably don't have to explain to you where Adam came up with that concept.

  21:41-21:47

  That is an appropriate word that should be used to describe a woman.

  21:48-21:49

  She's soft.

  21:52-22:00

  We get to verse 24, and this really is one of the most important verses in the entire Bible.

  22:00-22:07

  And this is in fact the most important verse in the Bible in talking about marriage.

  22:07-22:23

  It says, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh." That's the most important verse about marriage.

  22:24-22:29

  Like, "Well, how can you say that?" Well, it's not my opinion, it's Jesus' opinion.

  22:30-22:32

  Jesus was asked about marriage.

  22:33-22:38

  Matthew 19, Mark 10, he immediately quoted this verse.

  22:38-22:44

  Paul, when he was writing about marriage, Ephesians 5, 1 Corinthians 6, he quoted this verse.

  22:45-22:50

  is foundational to everything that God designed for marriage.

  22:51-22:52

  It's one statement.

  22:54-23:03

  And everything that we can talk about with marriage, and sexuality, and family, and relationships, and all of that, boils down to just this one thing.

  23:04-23:08

  So, let's look at this quickly in three parts.

  23:08-23:10

  God's designed for marriage.

  23:11-23:16

  Here it is, first of all, you have to leave for your new priority.

  23:18-23:19

  You have to leave for your new priority.

  23:20-23:32

  It says, "Therefore a man shall," look at this first phrase, "leave his father and his mother." I find that so interesting that this verse is inserted before there even was such a thing as a father and mother, right?

  23:34-23:41

  But even before kids came into the picture, God says, "Here's my plan for marriage." and it starts here. It starts with leaving.

  23:42-23:43

  Men, leaving.

  23:46-23:52

  Not saying that you never speak to your parents again, alright?

  23:52-24:00

  So don't, you know, call your parents up and say, "The pastor said I'm supposed to leave you, so this is our last conversation ever." That's not what this is saying.

  24:02-24:11

  This is not saying that married couples, that you can't live with your parents in a time of transition or an emergency situation.

  24:11-24:12

  It's not saying that at all.

  24:14-24:17

  What this is saying is there's a shift in loyalty and priority.

  24:21-24:23

  You're starting a new chapter in your life.

  24:25-24:31

  And this chapter is from living under your parents' care and your parents' authority to establishing your own home.

  24:31-24:35

  And that can only happen when you first of all leave.

  24:38-24:45

  You have to maintain a healthy biblical respect for your parents, but you can't let them negatively affect your relationship with your spouse.

  24:48-25:03

  And all I can tell you, I can tell you a plethora of stories where couples had failed at this foundational thing, where the husband is still tied to mom's apron strings, right?

  25:03-25:07

  And the wife won't make a move without consulting mama about it.

  25:07-25:19

  Look, it's great to have a healthy relationship, but when that relationship with your parents is interfering and you establishing your own home, you haven't fulfilled the first part of God's design for marriage, and that's leaving.

  25:22-25:23

  You have a new priority.

  25:23-25:25

  You're establishing your own home.

  25:27-25:28

  That means you gotta leave.

  25:29-25:33

  Secondly, number two, write this down, cleave to your wife exclusively.

  25:36-25:39

  Cleave, that's a King James word, but it rhymes with leave.

  25:42-25:50

  Well, I didn't, you know, didn't say it was an exact science, but the King James does say cleave, but it means to hold fast, right?

  25:51-25:53

  It means to be glued to your wife.

  25:55-26:01

  He says a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife.

  26:04-26:07

  There is no relationship on the planet like this one.

  26:11-26:23

  If you're married, your relationship with your spouse is by far the most important relationship you have and will ever have on this planet.

  26:28-26:35

  I find it so interesting that God did not create one man and create two women.

  26:36-26:41

  And say, okay, Adam, pick which one you want first.

  26:44-26:48

  His design from the beginning was, hey, here's one man, one woman for one lifetime.

  26:49-26:50

  Nor did God create 12 women.

  26:51-26:58

  Say, okay, Adam, why don't you marry one for a few years and when you're tired of her, move on to a different one.

  26:58-27:00

  I created a dozen for you.

  27:00-27:02

  Surely out of those, try them all out.

  27:02-27:06

  Surely out of those you can find one that's suitable for you.

  27:09-27:10

  He created one man for one woman.

  27:13-27:15

  And he says, look, you need to hold fast.

  27:15-27:16

  You need to cleave.

  27:19-27:21

  This is God's design for marriage.

  27:22-27:25

  Unfortunately, too many people look at marriage as a contract.

  27:26-27:27

  You know what a contract is?

  27:27-27:36

  A contract is, I'll sign my name to this and I'll keep my end of the deal so long as you keep your end of the deal and give me what I want.

  27:36-27:37

  That's a contract, right?

  27:37-27:39

  That's what you do for your cell phone.

  27:39-27:46

  Like I'll sign a contract, meaning you're going to fulfill what you promised me for this, right?

  27:48-27:49

  Marriage isn't a contract.

  27:50-27:51

  Marriage is a covenant.

  27:53-27:54

  And that's way different.

  27:56-28:05

  A covenant says, "I'm going to be faithful to do my part, no matter what." Right?

  28:07-28:11

  Like church, we live under the new covenant of the blood of Jesus Christ.

  28:12-28:23

  And you realize church that Jesus isn't saying, "Okay, for those of you who have received me, I will be faithful to you so long as you are faithful to me." That's not how it works.

  28:23-28:26

  Jesus has promised that he's going to be faithful no matter what.

  28:29-28:31

  And somehow we've lost that when it comes to marriage.

  28:34-28:36

  We view marriage like a contract.

  28:37-28:53

  We say, "I'm just going to get a divorce because she's not doing what I think she should be doing for me." He's not, "I thought he was when I married him, so I have an out." That's not a covenant.

  28:55-29:02

  The covenant says, "I am in this." And of course, as soon as you say that, there's objections, right?

  29:02-29:06

  Somebody right now is thinking, "Oh, but Pastor Jeff, you don't know my wife.

  29:07-29:09

  You don't, Pastor Jeff, you don't know my husband.

  29:09-29:17

  If only he was more like..." I just want to remind you, look, your conduct is not based on how other people treat you.

  29:17-29:19

  Your conduct is based on the Word of God.

  29:21-29:25

  And yes, certainly, the Bible addresses these things.

  29:25-29:27

  If you're in an abusive situation, you need to let us know.

  29:28-29:30

  And we will walk you through that.

  29:30-29:34

  It is not God's intention that a woman remain in an abusive situation.

  29:35-29:35

  Alright?

  29:36-29:42

  Or if there's something going on like adultery, you need to come and see me and we will walk through that with you.

  29:42-29:43

  Okay?

  29:44-29:56

  So don't take this as, "Well, being under a covenant means that I have to be subject to whatever abuse or neglect, and I'm not allowed to say anything, we will help you.

  29:59-30:11

  But sometimes I think we go too far the other way, and we're just looking for any and every reason to just bail on the marriage.

  30:13-30:14

  That is not God's intention.

  30:15-30:20

  God's intention is you fight for it with every fiber in your being.

  30:21-30:22

  Cleave to your wife exclusively.

  30:23-30:26

  And finally, weave.

  30:27-30:28

  Weave your lives together in unity.

  30:30-30:33

  What we have here is action, action, result, right?

  30:33-30:35

  He says, "Leave," that's action.

  30:35-30:36

  He's saying, "Cleave," that's action.

  30:37-30:38

  And really, this is the result.

  30:40-30:43

  Leave father and mother, hold fast to his wife, and here's the result.

  30:43-30:52

  and they shall become one flesh." This is unity. And this isn't just a poetic concept, okay?

  30:52-31:02

  This isn't something that somebody read on the front of a Hallmark card, and like, "Hey, that's great! Two become one! Let's write that up." This is literally what the Bible says.

  31:04-31:08

  Two people in marriage turn into one person.

  31:08-31:23

  And Jesus said in Matthew 9.6, He said, "So they are no longer two, but one flesh." So when you're married to someone, you're not into a partnership, you're not into a tag team.

  31:23-31:26

  You are literally two people that turned into one person.

  31:28-31:58

  Interestingly here in Genesis 2.24, it says, "They shall become one flesh." That word for "one" is also used in Deuteronomy 6, where it says, "The Lord is one." Somehow, in the same spirit that the Lord is one, though He's revealed Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a husband and wife married are two people turning into one person.

  32:00-32:08

  That's why we call it "weaving." It's like two cords that are being woven together to make one stronger cord.

  32:10-32:10

  That's weaving.

  32:11-32:14

  It's knowing and being known.

  32:15-32:17

  It's loving and being loved.

  32:20-32:26

  It means that no one should ever think of one of you without thinking of the other of you too.

  32:28-32:32

  Jesus' commentary continues in Matthew 9.6.

  32:33-32:51

  He says, "But therefore God has joined together, let not man separate." Jesus said, "God is in this work of joining you together in oneness." He said, "Let not man separate that." No one should get in the middle of the work that God is doing.

  32:54-32:55

  And that includes you.

  32:57-33:03

  I just want to give you three things to embrace to grow in unity.

  33:06-33:17

  Letter A, married people, write this down, "I keep no secrets." If you're married, these are three things you need to embrace to grow in your unity.

  33:17-33:31

  "I keep no secrets." Where I am going, who I am with, what I'm spending money on, Messages on my phone, I keep no secrets from my spouse.

  33:34-33:41

  Compromising in this goes against the unity that God is trying to bring about.

  33:44-33:49

  I keep no secrets, let her be. I do nothing that makes my spouse uncomfortable.

  33:51-33:58

  That means lunch with the opposite sex, or riding in a car alone with somebody from the opposite sex.

  34:01-34:03

  I strongly discourage that.

  34:05-34:13

  And men, when your wife is uncomfortable with something, do not disregard her feelings on the matter.

  34:14-34:18

  I think men have that tendency to say, "Well, she's just being irrational.

  34:18-34:21

  It's just coffee. It's just business.

  34:21-34:30

  We do this kind of thing all the time. It's part of the industry." If she's uncomfortable, respect that.

  34:31-34:35

  For the sake of your love for her and for the importance of protecting your relationship.

  34:37-34:38

  It's not worth it.

  34:40-34:40

  Respect her.

  34:42-34:44

  Do nothing that makes your spouse uncomfortable.

  34:45-34:58

  Like, even if you don't understand it, say, "Look, I love you enough to respect that." So keep no secrets, do nothing that makes your spouse uncomfortable and let her see.

  34:59-35:03

  And this is just in case we got to this point in the sermon and there's somebody here that I didn't offend yet.

  35:05-35:06

  Now this is your turn.

  35:08-35:09

  My money is our money.

  35:11-35:12

  My money is our money.

  35:12-35:15

  Now listen, I know, actually none of that's true.

  35:15-35:17

  It's all God's money, okay?

  35:18-35:21

  It's God's money, but I'm talking about this principle.

  35:24-35:28

  But some people get married and they insist on keeping the finances separate.

  35:31-35:36

  And for more reasons than I have time to tell you today, I just think that is a very unwise idea.

  35:39-35:41

  You should have the same checking account.

  35:43-35:45

  You should be spending within your means.

  35:46-35:57

  You should be deciding spending, especially on big things, you should be deciding that together. I just think it's unwise and I know couples that do this.

  35:58-36:03

  Let's say, "Look, this is my job, I make my money, this is what I bring in.

  36:04-36:16

  You have your job and this is what you bring in and let's keep that separate." And that, I got to be honest with you, that absolutely baffles me.

  36:18-36:20

  Like I'm sharing my soul with you.

  36:22-36:28

  I'm sharing my body with you, but keep your grubby myths out of my wallet.

  36:28-36:30

  Like what?

  36:31-36:33

  That's the part where we get all sensitive all of a sudden?

  36:36-36:39

  You need to say this, my money is our money.

  36:41-36:50

  And if you don't believe that, We could show you, we could talk to a good lawyer to prove that that's true, right?

  36:51-36:52

  My money is our money.

  36:54-36:58

  So look, maybe some of you right now, you're like, you know what?

  36:58-37:01

  My marriage has been a little stale.

  37:01-37:03

  I hear what you're saying, Pastor Jeff.

  37:03-37:08

  I just, I haven't really been feeling, I just haven't really been feeling it.

  37:08-37:08

  What do I need to do?

  37:08-37:09

  You need to humble yourself.

  37:10-37:11

  That's what you need to do.

  37:12-37:23

  You need to be honest before God and you need to be honest before your spouse and you need to sit down and say, "Hey, what are some things that I need to be doing right now to make you feel like number one in this relationship?

  37:25-37:40

  What are some things that I need to stop doing in order to make you feel like you're number one?" Because look, church, you are not one with your job.

  37:43-37:44

  You're not one with your job.

  37:45-37:47

  Jobs come and go, right?

  37:49-37:51

  A lot of us saw that during the pandemic.

  37:53-37:57

  And you know, no one on their deathbed ever wished for one more day of work.

  38:00-38:01

  Jobs come and go.

  38:01-38:01

  Hobbies.

  38:03-38:04

  Hobbies come and go.

  38:06-38:07

  But you're not one with your hobby.

  38:10-38:17

  Other people, you're not one with other people, not your parents, not your friends, and not even your children.

  38:20-38:21

  You're not one with the church.

  38:23-38:26

  Ministry is not an excuse to neglect your spouse.

  38:27-38:28

  You ministry together.

  38:30-38:45

  According to God, the only one that you are one with, the only one that you are uniquely connected to, and the only one that God is actively at work joining you together with is your spouse.

  38:47-38:51

  This was God's design from the beginning, and this is what it is now.

  38:52-38:56

  You gotta leave, and then you cleave, and the result is you weep.

  38:57-38:57

  Let's pray.

  38:59-39:09

  Father in heaven, we thank you for your word, especially in a day when things are constantly getting redefined.

  39:12-39:22

  And Father, the world already is beginning to see the foolishness of disregarding your Word on such clear foundational things.

  39:24-39:25

  And they will continue to.

  39:28-39:32

  But Father, you are calling us to a higher standard.

  39:34-39:37

  You are calling us to be a people who tremble before Your Word.

  39:39-39:44

  Who live in obedience even when we don't fully understand everything.

  39:47-40:01

  So Father, let the only voice that we hear and heed regarding marriage, sexuality, and gender, and all of these things, let the only voice that we hear be Yours.

  40:04-40:06

  the only voice that's eternally true.

  40:07-40:09

  We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Genesis 2:18-25

1. What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
   

2. Why did God have Adam name the animals (Gen 2:19-20)? What was the point of that assignment?
   

3. Why is “leaving father and mother” the necessary first step in marriage? What does it mean to “leave”?
   

4. What does it mean that marriage is a “covenant”? For those married - how does that determine the way we conduct ourselves as a spouse?
   

5. What is the best piece of marriage advice you’ve ever heard?

Breakout
Pray for one another.