Skeptic: Take time to Investigate (Jn 20:1-7)
Student: Understand the Scripture (Jn 20:8-7)
Sorrowful: Find your Comfort in Jesus Jn 20:11-7)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
Sermon Audio: (no recording)
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read John 20:1-18
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.
Choose to Sin , choose to Suffer.
Sin Brought Curses from God (Gen 3:14-19):
Sin Brought Exile from Eden (Gen 3:22-24):
Sin Brought the Introduction of Salvation (Gen 3:20-21):
Though sinned against, God initiated His grace by killing an innocent substitute, which provided a permanent covering of their shame, accomplishing what man could not.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
00:00-00:07
Chapter three, we're going to continue going through Genesis three.
00:07-00:08
We started it last week.
00:09-00:15
On the top of your outline, on the back of your bulletin, is a statement that we've said often.
00:15-00:17
We've heard it from Pastor James.
00:17-00:19
But it's a good statement for you to memorize.
00:21-00:22
Some of you probably already know it.
00:23-00:24
Choose to sin.
00:26-00:27
Choose to what?
00:28-00:29
Suffer.
00:30-00:35
If you choose to sin, you're making a choice to suffer.
00:38-00:47
And last week, when we started in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 1, we saw Adam and Eve chose to sin, and the whole world suffers for it for now.
00:49-00:51
We saw how sin entered the world.
00:52-00:58
One tree, one law, one temptation, one transgression.
01:00-01:15
And we saw the path, Satan's pattern, that he still uses to get us to doubt the Word of God and eventually deny the Word of God and then to disobey the Word of God, which results in us so often running from God.
01:18-01:20
And then we try to cover our own shame.
01:20-01:25
Remember last week, Adam and Eve tried to cover their shame and what did they use?
01:25-01:29
They made clothes out of leaves to cover themselves.
01:30-01:31
How effective was that?
01:33-01:34
I'd say not very effective.
01:36-01:36
Yeah, I agree.
01:37-01:45
And then after we try to cover it, when sin is exposed, we saw Adam and Eve do what we do.
01:46-01:47
Blame everyone.
01:47-01:50
It's not my fault, it's not my fault, it's not my fault.
01:50-01:52
"Yeah, I did some wrong things, but it's not my fault.
01:52-01:56
"It's my wife's fault, it's my mom's fault, "it's my kid's fault, it's my boss's fault.
01:57-02:25
"It's somebody's fault, but it's not my fault." It's my fault. I'm messed up. I have a problem.
02:26-02:32
Well, God promised dire consequences for breaking his command, and here they are.
02:33-03:44
Let's get right to them. On your outline, sin changed everything. Sin changed everything. Understand, when you look at the newspaper, watch the news, or you get your news online, however you get your news, there's going to be something in you that says things aren't right. Things aren't right. This world is severely messed up. Why is that? Well, it wasn't created that way. Sin changed everything. First of all, sin brought curses from God. Sin brought curses from God. Let's look at these curses first of all. Genesis chapter 3 verse 14. The curse to the serpent. The Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring.
03:46-03:55
He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel." So first of all, the curse went to the serpent.
03:56-04:05
Now if you notice in verse 14, God actually puts a curse on the animal that Satan used.
04:05-04:12
to understand that Satan used this animal, working through this animal to deceive Eve.
04:13-04:20
God actually put a curse on the animal and the question is, "What did the serpent look like before this?" Well, I don't know.
04:20-04:25
I don't have any pictures, but we do know that it wasn't on its belly before this.
04:26-05:56
You know, different commentators and scholars suggested, you know, this was the most magnificent of the animals and it stood upright and whatever the case it didn't look like we typically think of snakes. But maybe you have the same question I do. Why would God put a curse on the actual animal, right? If Satan used the animal, why did God curse the animal? And here's why. God wanted that animal, the actual physical animal, he wanted that animal to serve as a symbol, a perpetual symbol. Like a symbol of what? Well, what was Satan's endgame? Satan's goal was to exalt himself above God. And God is here saying, "Because you chose to exalt yourself, I'm going to make a perpetual symbol that's going to stay on the earth. Here's what happens to people that try to exalt themselves over me, on your belly you'll go. So you see snakes are a reminder that if you want to exalt yourself, God's going to bring you down. He's going to bring you down. It's also a symbol of repulsion. Any big fans of snakes here? Anybody? Like to death of snakes, anybody?
05:56-05:58
Oh, I see a lot more hands going up for that.
05:59-06:07
Some of the biggest, most macho, manliest men that I know scream like a little girl when they see a snake.
06:08-06:09
Why is that?
06:10-06:11
Snakes are a sign of repulsion.
06:14-06:18
So that was what God was doing, cursing the serpent, turned it into a symbol.
06:18-06:23
Notice also, he says, "Dust you shall eat." You're like, well, wait a second.
06:24-06:28
Snakes, don't snakes eat like mice and like bugs?
06:29-06:30
What does it mean they'll eat dust?
06:30-06:32
Well, eating dust is actually a euphemism for defeat.
06:33-06:34
You can see that in the Old Testament.
06:34-06:38
That phrase, you're going to eat dust, means you're going to be defeated.
06:39-06:39
Again, it's a symbol.
06:40-06:46
Just like the rainbow is a reminder that God will never again flood the earth, snakes are a reminder.
06:46-06:48
Exalt yourself, God's gonna bring you down.
06:49-06:50
How low?
06:50-06:52
God says, I'll take you down as far as you can go.
06:53-06:54
You will walk on your belly.
06:55-06:56
That's how far down you're going to go.
06:59-07:01
But now specifically, he addresses Satan.
07:01-07:02
Look at verse 15.
07:03-07:06
He says, "I will put enmity between you and a woman." Don't miss that.
07:06-07:12
"I will put-- I will--" you're like, well, wait a minute.
07:14-07:16
Isn't the devil already the enemy?
07:17-07:37
Well, see, at this point in history, notice that Adam and Eve, they didn't run from Satan, did they? Because of their sin, they ran from God. Their enmity at this point was not with Satan, their enmity was with God. So notice, this is a supreme act of grace on God's part.
07:38-08:01
He's saying, "I'm going to take the initiative. I'm going to put enmity between you, Satan, these people that you tried to take over. You see, Satan thought that he was going to befriend humanity and make humanity the enemy of God like he did with a third of the angels.
08:02-08:52
You know, when Satan made his rebellion in heaven, he took a third of the angels with him and those are what we call demons. Well, Satan, when he showed up on the earth to tempt Eve and get Adam to fall into sin, his line of thinking was the same. "Well, I took a angels. Now God created these special beings after his own image? I'm gonna get them too. I'll turn them against God just like a third of the angels turned against God. And here God is declaring, "Satan, you think that the woman is your friend and my enemy now? I'm going to change that. I'm going to make her your enemy and we're going to see the promises also to make her his friend.
08:53-08:55
This is the first promise of salvation in Scripture.
08:57-08:58
You see, you can't gloss over this.
08:58-08:59
This is huge.
08:59-09:11
In order for this fallen mankind to go from being God's enemy to God's friend, God was going to have to do something inside the human being.
09:11-09:12
Do you understand that?
09:13-09:26
God says, "I'm going to have to make a fundamental change at their very hearts." He's declaring here that he's going to give the grace to accomplish this.
09:27-09:30
God in essence was saying, "Satan, you're not going to rule easily.
09:30-09:31
You're not going to rule effectively.
09:33-09:36
You're not going to reign over the seed of Eve.
09:36-09:43
In fact, one of them is going to crush you." Did you see that?
09:46-09:57
Look again with me verse 15 Enmity between you and a woman between your offspring and her offspring. You're like, well, wait a minute. I can understand Adam and Eve having offspring. Well, who is Satan's offspring?
09:58-10:12
Satan doesn't give birth to demons Satan doesn't you know, give birth to any type of life But remember in John chapter 8 in verse 44 Jesus said You are of your father, the devil.
10:12-10:14
So Satan certainly does have his offspring.
10:16-10:19
There are people that have rejected God and are still living in sin.
10:22-10:23
This is a "he" though.
10:23-10:30
He says, "He shall bruise your head." Notice there is one offspring in particular God is focusing on here.
10:32-10:35
Eve, you're going to have offspring, but I'm talking about this one now.
10:35-10:39
He is going to bruise your head.
10:42-10:43
You will bruise his heel.
10:44-10:49
That refers to a sneak attack from behind, as Satan tried to accomplish at the cross.
10:51-10:56
On the margin of your Bible, beside verse 15, just draw a little cross.
10:58-10:59
Go ahead, just draw a little cross.
11:01-11:06
"Well, I don't write in my Bible." Well, if you're sitting next to one of those people, just reach over and draw a cross in the margin.
11:08-11:09
OK, it's OK to do that.
11:11-11:12
You have you have permission.
11:14-11:19
But the reason I want you to draw across this is the first promise of Jesus Christ in the Bible.
11:20-11:21
Very significant.
11:25-11:27
Satan has been sentenced.
11:29-11:32
Like, well, seems like he still has a pretty good grip on the world.
11:32-11:36
Well, it's like a death row inmate, sentenced but not executed yet.
11:37-11:38
That's the story of Satan right now.
11:39-11:41
But understand that victory is already won.
11:41-11:45
We're not waiting for the day that victory is accomplished.
11:46-11:50
Victory has already been accomplished, and we're going to talk about that on Friday and Sunday.
11:50-11:54
Victory has been accomplished, and it's ours for the taking right now.
11:55-11:59
So those are the curses that the Lord put on the serpent.
12:02-12:29
Secondly the curses to the woman, let's pick up in verse 16, "To the woman he said, 'I will surely multiply your pain and childbearing, and pain you shall bring forth children.'" Look at this next phrase, "Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." Okay, so he turns from the serpent to the woman.
12:31-12:37
The curse on the woman has to do with the two most important relationships in her life.
12:38-12:42
That's with her children and her husband.
12:43-12:50
The two most significant relationships in a woman's life are now forever changed because of the curse.
12:52-12:53
First of all, pain and childbearing.
12:54-12:57
I've never had any children, but ladies, can I get a witness?
13:01-13:02
Can I get a witness?
13:02-13:03
Does having kids hurt?
13:05-13:05
Does it?
13:06-13:09
Okay, a couple confirmations on that, good.
13:10-13:15
I hate to just like shoot from the hip on these types of things, but again, no personal experience.
13:17-13:20
But my understanding is it hurts.
13:21-13:25
Not just the physical pain of giving birth, but also the pain of raising children.
13:26-13:28
Have you ever had heartache over your children?
13:30-13:31
See, that's tied into this.
13:33-13:52
Verse seven, excuse me, verse 16 in the middle, it says, "Your desire shall be for your husband." You're like, "Well, what kind of curse is that?" I mean, shouldn't every woman desire her husband?
13:54-13:55
Like, what kind of curse is that?
13:55-13:59
Well, this is a unique word in the Hebrew.
13:59-14:01
And actually, it's used one other place.
14:01-14:03
And I want you to turn, or actually, you don't have to turn.
14:03-14:08
Just move your eyes a little bit to chapter 4 and verse 7 when the Lord's talking to Cain.
14:10-14:12
He says, if you do well, will you not be accepted?
14:12-14:15
And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.
14:16-14:17
Same Greek phrasing here.
14:18-14:20
Its desire is for you.
14:21-14:23
But you must rule over it.
14:24-14:27
So you understand what this figure of speech means now, don't you?
14:28-14:34
God wasn't saying to Cain that sin is going to put on a little mascara and get dressed up and say hubba hubba.
14:35-14:38
Sin is going to have a desire to overtake you.
14:39-14:45
But you have to take control of sin, is what he was telling Cain.
14:49-14:52
So there's going to be an authority struggle in the home.
14:54-14:56
That's what God's talking about here.
14:56-15:11
And any married couple can testify, and many of you are sitting with your husband or wife right now, so I'm not gonna ask for a show of hands or anything, but just in your heart, Can you see that there's an authority struggle in the home?
15:15-15:20
You see, God's design is that there's mutual submission, really, Ephesians 5:21.
15:21-15:22
We submit one to another.
15:23-15:26
The husband is to be the servant leader in the home.
15:27-15:29
The wife is to be the submissive helper in the home.
15:29-15:40
And the picture, Ephesians 5:22, is that the husband represents Jesus Christ, the servant leader who would lay down his life for his bride.
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That's how much he loves his bride.
15:42-15:50
And the wife sees herself as the church, submissive under the authority of, but loving and coming alongside.
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That's the picture that God always intended for marriage.
15:54-15:57
Like, why don't nobody marriages like that consistently?
15:57-15:59
Well, that's tied into the curse.
16:00-16:01
It's tied into the curse.
16:04-16:12
Your desires are going to be subject to your husband's will, God was telling Eve, and he's not even going to love you perfectly.
16:14-16:14
Tied into the curse.
16:15-16:38
Then to man, verse 17, 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." God says, "You listen to Eve instead of listening to me." Well, at this point, Eve didn't have her name, just says the woman.
16:40-16:45
Because you have listened to her instead of me, cursed is the ground because of you.
16:47-16:50
In pain, you shall eat of it all the days of your life.
16:52-16:54
Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you.
16:56-16:58
And you shall eat the plants of the field.
17:00-17:15
By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you are taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return." So the curse is as pertaining to the man.
17:16-17:18
The curse actually went on the ground, first of all.
17:20-17:25
The king of the earth now becomes the slave of the earth.
17:27-17:31
And I know there's kids sitting here this morning saying, "You know what?
17:32-17:35
Work is part of the curse, Mom and Dad." Right, kids?
17:35-17:36
Work is part of the curse.
17:37-17:43
So for parents to give children chores, that's just carrying out the curse, right?
17:44-17:45
Is that right?
17:46-17:52
No, I always want to speak the truth to you, but work was pre-fall.
17:53-18:00
Adam was put in the garden to work even before the fall, but the curse comes from the ground fighting back now.
18:01-18:02
Work is going to be hard now.
18:03-18:07
The battle for bread is going to consume your life now, Adam.
18:08-19:01
So just as women are affected primarily in their main sphere of life, the home, the husband, children, the curse of man is directly on his main sphere, work. Work's gonna be hard. Work's gonna be hard. How many times you hear people say, "I hate my job." Anybody here hate your job? Like, I'm not gonna complain in church. I hate my job. I hate my job. Yeah, everybody does. Work is hard, right? Work is hard, and God promised that we're so spoiled the day we live now. You know, technology works a lot less hard for us now than it was at Adam's day, for sure. Thorns, thistles, and sweat, we see that, don't we? We see the curse. It's right in front of our faces.
19:02-19:22
That's what I love about God's Word is you can read this and then just walk outside and be like, "Yep, there it is. Here's a little test for you." If you were to clear a lot, let's say you're gonna build a house, you're gonna build a barn, anybody here gonna build a barn, but you're gonna build something on this lot, let's say you clear the lot, I'm gonna come back next year and start to build.
19:23-19:26
What's that lot gonna look like a year later?
19:27-19:28
What's it gonna look like?
19:29-19:30
Just how you left it, right?
19:32-19:32
No.
19:33-19:35
It's gonna be overgrown.
19:36-19:39
And we know in Western Pennsylvania, if the grass gets too tall, you get snakes, right?
19:40-19:41
Did your dad tell you that?
19:42-19:45
Get a mow the grass or we'll get snakes, which is also tied into the curse.
19:49-19:52
But we have a house up in Butler that's rented out.
19:52-20:07
And before we moved to Chicago, I borrowed my father-in-law's chainsaw 'cause we have these hedges that go along the whole one side, the whole side of the house, the whole yard, It goes the whole side, and they grow like crazy.
20:09-20:16
So I'm, you know, Aaron, I'm going to get me a chainsaw, and I'm going to take care of those bushes.
20:17-20:19
And I cut those things down to the nub.
20:21-20:24
When we got back, those things-- it looks like Tarzan's living there now.
20:25-20:26
But that's part of the curse.
20:26-20:30
I mean, the weeds and the whatever that was, just overgrowing.
20:33-20:34
We see it right in front of us.
20:37-20:40
God was essentially saying to Adam, you came from dirt.
20:41-20:43
You're going to work hard in the dirt.
20:45-20:49
And then eventually, Adam, you're going to become dirt again.
20:52-20:55
You know our bodies are like, what, is it 80% water?
20:55-20:55
Something like that?
20:56-20:58
That's really all you are, that's all I am.
20:59-21:03
We're like a handful of dirt and a few gallons of water.
21:03-21:04
It's really what we are.
21:04-21:15
And part of the curse, someday, when our time is up, this body's going to die, and we're going to turn into dirt again.
21:16-21:17
Why is that?
21:21-21:22
It's the result of sin.
21:24-21:25
It's the result of sin.
21:27-21:28
So sin brought curses from God.
21:31-21:32
Let's pick up here.
21:32-21:34
Actually, I want to skip down to verse 22.
21:35-21:37
I want to close with verses 20 and 21.
21:38-21:40
But in your outline, sin brought exile from Eden.
21:42-21:43
Exile from Eden.
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Look at verse 22.
21:45-21:50
"The Lord God said, 'Behold, the man has become like one of us, and knowing good and evil.
21:52-21:57
Now lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever.
22:01-22:08
Therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.
22:09-22:28
He drove out the man and at the east of Eden, the garden of Eden, excuse me, he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life." So man was shut out of paradise.
22:30-22:31
I want you to understand something.
22:31-22:33
This too is an act of grace.
22:34-22:37
Do you realize this eviction out of paradise is an act of grace?
22:38-22:39
Why did God throw them out of Eden?
22:39-22:40
What does your Bible say?
22:41-22:42
Why did God throw them out of there?
22:44-22:45
person again to just shout it out.
22:47-22:49
So they don't eat from the tree of life, right?
22:49-22:50
That was God's reasoning.
22:51-23:02
You know, He says, "I don't want them to eat off that tree, so get them out of there, and let's put a guard there to make sure he doesn't try to find his way back in there and get it." Understand, that's grace.
23:03-23:10
What God was doing was He was preventing man from living forever in a fallen state, right?
23:12-23:48
together in a fallen state. You know, I'm 36 now and I'm sick to death of it. Like really, that's like 36 years too long living in this, you know, redeemed, yes, but in the fallen flesh, in a fallen world. Would I want things to go on like this for eternity? Absolutely not. But even more so, it doesn't matter what I want, but even more so, God in His grace doesn't want us going on in this type of existence. So I will raise you into a new kind of life without sin.
23:49-23:52
So sin brought curses from God.
23:53-23:54
Sin brought exile from Eden.
23:57-23:58
Here's the good news.
23:58-24:01
This is what I've been so anxious to share with you these past two weeks.
24:02-24:04
Sin brought the introduction of salvation.
24:06-24:10
Sin brought the introduction of salvation.
24:11-24:12
Look at verses 20 and 21.
24:13-24:20
The man called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living.
24:23-24:34
And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skin and clothed them.
24:37-24:38
The introduction of salvation.
24:39-24:39
What is salvation?
24:42-24:44
We see it here in verses 20 and 21.
24:45-24:46
What's man's part in salvation?
24:47-24:48
Man's part is what?
24:49-24:50
His faith.
24:52-24:56
Our part is really just believing in what God's already done, right?
24:56-24:57
Isn't that our part of salvation?
24:59-25:02
It's not like God says, "I'm going to do half of the work and I want you to do half of the work.
25:02-25:05
Don't leave here thinking that." Like, God has half and I have half.
25:05-25:09
No, God's part in salvation is 100%.
25:09-25:15
Our part is simply to believe in what He's already done.
25:16-25:19
But we see the first statement of faith right here in verse 20.
25:23-25:25
Adam named his wife Eve.
25:29-25:31
There again I don't think it's fair that he got to name his wife.
25:32-25:33
Mine came with a name.
25:34-25:37
It's a nice name, but could you imagine if it wasn't?
25:38-25:39
He got to name her.
25:41-25:42
But this is actually a statement of faith.
25:42-25:43
Why did he name her Eve?
25:43-25:44
It wasn't a random name.
25:46-25:50
He named her Eve because she was the mother of all the living.
25:52-25:57
But understand, at this point, there was nobody else.
25:58-25:59
So this is a statement of faith.
26:01-26:03
God had just said that Eve was going to have offspring.
26:03-26:07
So Adam, trusting God, said, you know what?
26:07-26:15
your name is going to be Eve because you're going to have offspring because I believe the words that came out of God's mouth.
26:16-26:17
That's what faith is.
26:17-26:20
Every week when we stand up and we say, "Turn in your Bibles.
26:22-26:36
This is what God said." It's by faith that we reach out and take hold of that and say, "If this is what God said, then I believe it." That's man's part of salvation is just believing the word of God.
26:39-26:45
And obviously, we'll talk more about that in detail on on Friday and Sunday, believing what about the word of God?
26:48-26:51
We'll talk about that, but here's God's part.
26:52-26:52
What's God's part?
26:54-26:58
Just write down the most beautiful word in the universe, you know what it is?
26:59-27:00
It's grace.
27:01-27:02
It's grace.
27:04-27:05
What is grace?
27:08-27:08
What is grace?
27:11-27:18
It's God giving to us what he requires from us.
27:19-27:20
That's what grace is.
27:22-27:23
Did you see that in verse 21?
27:26-27:38
And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skin, garments of skins, and clothed them.
27:41-27:45
We saw last week their attempt at covering shame failed, right?
27:46-27:52
They took some leaves and somehow sewed together some underclothes made out of leaves.
27:52-27:56
And we talked about this last week, But what happens to leaves after a couple of days?
27:57-28:04
You know, Adam was walking around sporting his new BVDs, and he sat down and crunched, and there went his britches.
28:06-28:07
I'll have to do it again.
28:07-28:09
Man's attempts at covering shame futile.
28:10-28:11
God knew that their shame needed covered.
28:11-28:12
He knew that.
28:13-28:14
So what did he do?
28:16-28:19
He made them garments of skins.
28:23-28:24
What do you think that looked like to Adam and Eve?
28:27-28:29
Because understand, this is the first death in Scripture.
28:30-28:45
Up until this point, all Adam and Eve have ever experienced is the beauty and the glory of God's new and living creation, the animals and the birds and everything they would have seen, paradise.
28:47-28:56
And now all of a sudden, God says, "You need coverings." And He kills something so that they can be covered.
28:57-29:00
I want you to look at this statement on your bulletin.
29:00-29:02
I wrote it down, it's from my notes.
29:04-29:06
This is what verse 21 is saying.
29:06-29:08
This is so important, especially as we get to Friday and Sunday.
29:11-29:13
Because understand the gospel is right here.
29:14-29:35
sinned against, God initiated His grace by killing an innocent substitute, which provided a permanent covering of their shame, accomplishing what man could not.
29:35-29:55
I'm going to read that again because this is what God was instituting right here. Right after the first sin came into the world, this is what God did. Those sinned against, God initiated His grace. God was the one that they sinned against.
29:59-30:07
But notice God didn't say, "I'm going to wait until they come crawling back to me." When they come crawling back to me, then we'll talk about making things right.
30:07-30:12
What was the problem? Adam and Eve weren't crawling back to God, were they?
30:12-30:22
What were they doing? They're in the bushes hiding from God. It wasn't as if they came back and said, "God, we blew it. Can you help us?" And God's like, "Well, okay.
30:23-30:33
I'll think of something." God initiated the grace. Understand that. That's still true today. There's none of us walking around saying, "Oh God, my life is so hard.
30:33-30:42
"Oh God, you're going to throw me a boat here, my life is so hard." And I was like, "Okay, because you came to me, I will do something for you." God is the one pursuing you.
30:44-30:48
And so often we're the ones on the run from God, hiding in the bushes.
30:48-30:50
"Oh God, I'm so ashamed of myself.
30:50-30:52
Oh God, I've screwed my life up so much.
30:52-30:57
I better stay away from God." God initiated.
30:58-31:01
God initiated His grace.
31:03-31:03
How did he do it?
31:05-31:09
He killed a substitute.
31:09-31:10
Not just a substitute.
31:13-31:14
He killed an innocent substitute.
31:17-31:24
You know, that animal, whatever animal it was he killed that he took the skins off of, that animal had nothing to do with anything as far as sin.
31:27-31:28
Innocent bystander.
31:29-31:31
God says, "I want you to get something in your mind right now.
31:33-31:59
By my grace, for you, my people, who I've created in my image, I'm going to make a way that an innocent substitute can be killed, providing a permanent covering of your shame." This will cover your shame.
32:00-32:03
And the last phrase, accomplishing what man could not.
32:03-32:06
There's not one of us here that can do anything to get things right with God.
32:08-32:09
Well God, maybe if I go to church more.
32:09-32:11
God, maybe if I work in the soup kitchen.
32:11-32:12
Or God, I'll sign up for Urban Impact.
32:13-32:14
Or God, I'll do this ministry.
32:15-32:19
Those things don't make God happier with you.
32:21-32:22
He can't do anything.
32:26-32:30
God is the one who did it.
32:34-32:41
The offended holy God gave grace instead of wrath.
32:43-32:50
the first killing and innocent to atone for sin.
32:52-32:55
Understand that this is the first sacrifice of the Bible.
32:57-33:01
This is the first sacrifice, but God was already paving the way for something here.
33:04-33:09
for a time that sin wouldn't just be covered over.
33:14-33:23
As we'll talk about Friday and Sunday, in Jesus Christ, sin isn't just covered over, sin is taken away.
33:26-33:27
There's a big difference between the two, isn't there?
33:28-33:29
Is there a difference?
33:32-33:40
If an animal walks up onto your porch and dies, and your wife says do something about it, do you think she wants you to cover it or take it away?
33:42-33:43
I'll just throw a towel over it.
33:45-33:46
That wouldn't work in my house, would it, Aaron?
33:47-33:48
No, it wouldn't work in my house.
33:48-33:49
I just put a towel over it.
33:49-33:51
It wasn't one of your good tea towels, it was an old one.
33:53-33:55
That's covering, that's atonement.
33:55-33:57
God made provision that it can be covered.
34:00-34:04
In Jesus Christ, sin is taken away.
34:07-34:09
I'm going to pray, we're going to worship some more.
34:12-34:15
And we're going to close our time by taking the Lord's Supper.
34:16-34:17
And why do we take the Lord's Supper?
34:18-34:20
Because no sin against.
34:22-34:36
God initiated his grace by killing an innocent substitute, which provided a taking away of our sin, accomplishing what man could not.
34:38-34:39
Will you bow your heads and pray with me, please?
34:41-34:48
Father in heaven, all glory and honor and praise goes to you.
34:50-34:58
And how amazing it is, we see the gospel of Jesus Christ, the foundation of it just laid out so clearly in Genesis 3.
35:05-35:06
But Father, I pray.
35:09-35:26
I pray now that you would just remove the stupid notions from our heads, for we think we can do things that will make you happy with us, or that we can earn our way to you somehow, or that there is something inherently good about us that we deserve you to act on our behalf.
35:30-35:47
The truth is God, by nature we're sinners and by nature we run from you, but your word makes it clear God that you are the one who is looking for us.
35:49-35:53
You are the one who is initiating grace.
35:56-35:58
The foundation has been laid, Father.
36:00-36:18
And I pray as we meditate on this through this week and come back together over at Covenant on Friday and come back here next Sunday, that we could just be in awe of the fulfillment of these promises you've made in Genesis 3.
36:21-36:22
God, you are awesome.
36:23-36:24
Your salvation is glorious.
36:27-36:33
I pray that you would give us eyes to see it and the faith to believe it.
36:35-36:37
We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Genesis 3:14-24
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.
Step 1. Doubt the Authenticity of God’s Word (Gen 3:1-3)
Step 2. Deny the Accuracy of God’s Word (Gen 3:4-5)
Step 3. Disobey the Authority of God’s Word (Gen 3:6)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
00:00-00:31
Today begins our sermon series heading into Easter and just make a note we are working on having a Good Friday service here. Plans are in the works for that at seven o'clock to assemble and discuss the the cross of Jesus Christ and what that means. So just kind of mark that down we will get you more details I promise you when I get them. For right now we've been talking with the school about getting those things arranged.
00:33-00:39
And I hope that you've been handing out those invitation cards that Sammy so lovingly made.
00:39-00:53
If you've been handing those out, we wanna invite any of your unchurched friends, you have any friends or family, coworkers that don't go to church, maybe they don't have a church home, maybe some of you know that don't know the Lord, bring them to hear the good news of Jesus Christ, right?
00:54-00:58
Because Jesus is first, right?
00:58-00:59
It's like right on our guitar, right?
00:59-01:00
Jesus is first.
01:03-01:08
Open up your Bibles with me to Genesis chapter 3.
01:10-01:27
The title of today's message is "Enter Sin." Several years ago, I was at the gym exercising and had a good, hard workout.
01:28-01:33
I did my cardio, did my weights, and all of a sudden, I didn't feel very well.
01:35-01:37
And I couldn't even hardly stand.
01:38-01:40
I was sick to my stomach.
01:40-01:44
And I thought, well, maybe I just blew a gasket working out so hard.
01:44-01:46
And like, surely not.
01:46-01:48
Yeah, surely that's a possibility.
01:48-01:52
And my wife was actually in another part of the gym.
01:54-01:56
I went and pounded on the lady's locker room door.
01:56-02:01
and she kind of dragged me out of there and we went to the emergency room.
02:01-02:06
At this point, I could barely stand, I could barely keep my eyes open, again, getting just sicker and sicker.
02:07-02:13
When you go into the emergency room like that, here's a little tip for you, you get to go right in, okay?
02:13-02:21
When you come in with your wife like dragging you and you're just like, they brought a wheelchair up and they took me back, I got a bed immediately.
02:22-02:28
And all, things were kind of fuzzy at that point, obviously, But there were a lot of doctors and nurses buzzing around.
02:29-02:31
And nobody could figure out what was going on.
02:32-02:33
They're like, what's the matter with this guy?
02:33-02:36
I mean, he looks healthy and young.
02:38-02:44
And the one doctor called me hairy, for what that's worth.
02:46-02:47
It must be a medical thing.
02:48-02:50
But right, Alicia, is that a medical thing?
02:50-02:51
OK, no.
02:51-02:51
Sorry.
02:51-02:51
OK.
02:53-02:55
But they couldn't figure out what was going on.
02:55-03:00
I remember as I was kind of like fading in and out of consciousness, he said, can you think of anything?
03:00-03:10
And I said, well, between the doorway where the weights are and where the lockers are, I said, I thought maybe I smelled gas, but.
03:11-03:13
And they were like, oh.
03:14-03:25
Well, they did a blood gas test on me, you know how that works, they stick a needle the size of a McDonald's straw in your wrist to get blood out.
03:26-03:27
Ask me how that felt.
03:29-03:31
It hurt, OK?
03:31-03:32
A lot.
03:32-03:38
Well, the doctor came back in grinning ear to ear.
03:40-03:43
I mean, it was like he just won on the prices right or something.
03:43-03:45
Just came in grinning ear to ear.
03:45-03:48
He goes, you have carbon monoxide poisoning.
03:49-03:51
I'm like, and this is good news, why?
03:52-03:54
Well, do you know why it was good news?
03:56-03:57
Well, it's still alive.
03:58-04:01
We're still debating whether that was good news or not.
04:01-04:08
But it was good news because he was saying we found the problem.
04:09-04:10
So why is that good news?
04:11-04:15
Because since we knew what the problem was, what else did we know?
04:16-04:17
How to fix it, right?
04:18-04:20
See, that was the problem when I first went up.
04:20-04:21
They didn't know what the problem was.
04:21-04:22
They didn't know how to fix it.
04:22-04:23
Does he need medicine?
04:23-04:25
Does he need oxygen?
04:25-04:27
Does he need an IV of something?
04:27-04:28
They had no idea.
04:28-04:33
But when they knew what the problem was, they knew how to fix it.
04:34-04:39
And you see, that's why we're starting in Genesis chapter three, leading up to Easter.
04:40-04:41
You're like, well, let's talk about Jesus.
04:41-04:43
And let's talk about the cross.
04:43-04:45
And let's talk about the resurrection.
04:45-04:47
And we will.
04:48-04:49
But we can't start there.
04:52-05:03
Because if we just start there and say 2,000 years ago a man who claimed to be God died on a cross, what does that have to do with me?
05:04-05:05
And why did he do that?
05:06-05:08
What's the significance of the resurrection?
05:08-05:22
Well, just like that doctor was rejoicing to know what the problem was so he knew how to fix it, there's a sense in which we need to dig deep and discover what our problem is so we can see how God fixed it.
05:22-05:30
You know, evolution teaches that man is getting better and better and better and better.
05:31-05:44
As time goes on, man is becoming more complex and, you know, man should be getting better and better, but the Bible says man actually started out at his best, and then things got really bad.
05:47-05:54
Would you observe that something is really messed up globally?
05:55-05:55
Could you say that?
05:56-05:57
Could you step back and look at the world?
05:57-05:59
Would you agree with me to say, "You know what?
06:00-06:10
Something is really messed up." Interpretation by voting, how many people would say, "Yeah, I would say something is really messed up in the world." All right, everybody, things are messed up.
06:12-06:19
With wars and famines and disease and tragedies and disasters and something's messed up.
06:22-06:24
But let's let's zoom in a little bit.
06:26-06:31
Can you also observe that there's something messed up in here personally?
06:31-06:35
And I don't just mean it me, I know something's messed up in here personally.
06:36-06:37
But what about in your heart?
06:39-06:40
Can you say, you know what?
06:42-06:44
I think something's messed up in here.
06:45-06:48
Can we agree on that again by vote?
06:49-06:50
But we don't vote here. We're voting this morning.
06:50-06:52
Can we see that there's something messed up in here?
06:53-06:54
There is, isn't there?
06:55-06:59
Now, here's the thing, people people don't argue that there's a problem.
07:02-07:11
Right, we could do this, Paul, we could get out, we could get out to the mall, we could down to the air, but we could go anywhere and ask people that question.
07:11-07:13
Do you think things are messed up in the world?
07:13-07:15
Do you think sometimes maybe you're a little messed up?
07:16-07:17
Everybody's going to agree to that, right?
07:18-07:20
But here's what people don't agree on.
07:20-07:23
What people don't agree on is what the solution is.
07:25-07:27
There's a problem, how do we fix it?
07:31-07:33
Well, how do we fix things personally?
07:35-07:44
Sadly, too many people are looking at the problem in here and say, "Here's how we fix it." I just have a little list here if you wanna jot these things down.
07:44-07:48
Here's some things people, some solutions people have come up with to try to fix the problem.
07:49-07:50
Some people say it's psychology.
07:51-07:55
If we could just get you to maybe think a little differently, dig deep into your past, psychology.
07:56-07:57
Some people say it's religion.
07:58-07:59
You know, just get religious.
07:59-08:00
Just get religious.
08:00-08:05
And that'll help take care of this personal, messed up problem that I have in my heart.
08:08-08:09
Some people say it's finding yourself.
08:10-08:17
I'd tie that into psychology, but if people say, you need to find yourself, you need to discover what's best for yourself.
08:19-08:20
Know who you really are.
08:22-08:24
For some people, it's meditation.
08:24-08:25
For some people, it's medication.
08:27-08:36
I'm not bashing medication or the medical field, but I would caution that sometimes people run to that too often, too soon, too easy, too undiagnosed.
08:37-08:44
That there's a real problem going on in here, but we try to mask it over with medication.
08:46-08:57
Sometimes medication is necessary, but it has become a problem when that becomes viewed as the solution to our problems.
08:57-08:59
And for some people, it's counseling.
09:00-09:15
Well, the problem with these solutions them are working. Because it's like putting a band-aid on cancer. So what's the answer?
09:16-09:31
Well, let's look at our Bibles here. Genesis chapter 1. You know, Genesis 1 and 2 talks about how God created. Day 1, the light. Day 2, the skies, the heavens. Day 3, the land, of vegetation. Day four, he created the sun, moon and stars.
09:32-09:34
Day five, he created the water animals and the birds.
09:34-09:36
Day six, he created the land animals.
09:37-09:48
And when you go through Genesis chapter one, you see, you know, verse four, verse 10, verse 12, verse 18, verse 21, verse 25, over and over and over.
09:48-09:50
God says it was good.
09:51-09:52
He created and he said, that's good.
09:53-09:54
He created something else.
09:54-09:55
This is good.
09:55-09:55
He created something else.
09:56-09:56
This is good.
09:57-09:59
And then the pinnacle of God's creation, do you know what it is?
10:00-10:04
The pinnacle of God's creation on day six, he created man.
10:05-10:06
And why is man the pinnacle?
10:06-10:11
Because man is the only thing on this earth that was made in God's image.
10:11-10:18
God made man special out of the dust, breathed the breath of life into his nostrils in God's image.
10:18-10:21
And verse thirty one, what did God say after he created man?
10:22-10:24
This is not just good.
10:25-10:27
What does your Bible say?
10:28-10:28
Very good.
10:31-10:39
Right, so the Bible says God created everything and he goes, good, good, good, good, very good. And I would say, OK, well, then what's the problem?
10:41-10:49
What happened? Because I'm surrounded by a room full of people here that are saying things aren't very good anymore.
10:50-10:51
So what happened?
10:52-10:54
Well, we're going to see what exactly happened.
10:54-10:57
And as we go through this text, I don't want to just state the facts.
10:57-10:59
I don't want anybody to leave here going, well, that was interesting.
11:00-11:01
Yes, yes, yes. Interesting.
11:01-11:03
Interesting little factoids and nuggets.
11:05-11:12
We need to personalize this, because, listen, this is how this is how sin started.
11:14-11:16
But this is also how sin continues.
11:18-11:20
And you're going to see a definite pattern here, you ready?
11:20-11:27
First of all, number one on your outline, sin starts when we disregard God's word.
11:29-11:32
Sin starts when we disregard God's word.
11:33-11:37
Now, to get the context here, look at chapter two, verses 17 and 18.
11:38-11:42
You know, when God created, he made these two special trees in the Garden of Eden.
11:42-11:45
There was the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
11:47-11:49
But look back to chapter 2, verse 16.
11:50-12:16
It says, "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.'" Now, interestingly, in the Hebrew, what this literally says, God says, "When you eat of this tree dying, you will die.
12:19-12:20
What is death?
12:20-12:21
Well, death is separation.
12:24-12:28
When you go to the funeral home and you see the body in the casket, there's death.
12:28-12:31
The spirit is separated from the body.
12:34-12:38
But death is not only that kind of separation, it's also spiritual separation.
12:39-12:42
separation between man and God.
12:43-12:48
It's the brokenness of fellowship between man and between God.
12:50-13:00
But we're going to see here as we go through this passage, and I'm sure many of you are familiar with this story, but when Adam ate from this tree, he didn't just drop over dead.
13:01-13:02
Dying, you will die.
13:02-13:03
This began a process.
13:05-13:15
God said, "You will start to die, "and it will end with death." That's why from the moment you're born, you're on your way out.
13:17-13:25
You're like, "That's really morbid, but is that true?" From the moment you're born, the clock is ticking until you're on your way out.
13:28-13:44
And some of us are experiencing the, I guess, the first-hand subjective experience of that, The growing old, the sicknesses and the health issues and we're wearing out.
13:45-13:47
Dying you will die.
13:48-13:56
It will bring separation, but it will also start a process that's ultimately going to end in your physical death.
13:58-13:59
Oh, I have a question.
14:01-14:02
Maybe you've asked this.
14:02-14:12
If God didn't want Adam and Eve to eat off that tree, then why did He put the tree there in the first place?
14:12-14:12
Have you ever asked that?
14:14-14:16
Why did He put that tree there in the first place?
14:16-14:21
Well, the reason He put that tree in the garden was because God gave man free will.
14:23-14:24
God gave man free will.
14:25-14:36
Now, if there were no opportunity for man to disobey God, couldn't you just see the adversary coming before God?
14:37-14:40
Well, sure they obey you.
14:40-14:41
Sure they believe in you.
14:41-14:44
Sure they do everything you want them to do because they don't have any other choice.
14:45-14:46
They just can't.
14:47-14:56
So God, you created these people to have a love relationship with, but they really don't have a choice but to have a love relationship with you because they can't really reject you.
14:59-16:11
God in his graciousness and giving us free will gave Adam and Eve a choice. You can obey me, but you also have the option of disobeying me. So sin starts when we disregard God's Word. Well, how does that work? We'll jot this down next on your outline, then we're going to get into the text, but it starts with step one, doubt the authenticity of God's Word. Doubt the authenticity of God's Word. It says, "Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, 'Did God actually say, "You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?" And the woman said to "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.'" So going through the text here, it says, "The serpent." Who is the serpent?
16:12-16:16
Well, we find out in Revelation chapter 12, verse 9, this is the devil.
16:18-16:23
Interestingly, this is the first question in the Bible. Did you know that?
16:24-16:26
Genesis 1 and 2, you won't find any questions.
16:26-16:30
It's just declarative. God did this, God did this, God did this.
16:31-16:34
No questions until the enemy shows up.
16:37-16:39
And this is Satan's first step.
16:39-16:42
Understand that his tactics are still the same.
16:43-16:44
They worked on Adam and Eve.
16:45-16:48
He's still using them today. Why? Because they still work.
16:49-16:52
But you see his first step? Did God really say that?
16:53-16:55
Did God actually say that?
16:56-17:01
But you notice, Satan, he's such a liar.
17:03-17:10
"You shall not eat of any tree in the garden." Heave, doesn't that sound awfully restrictive?
17:11-17:12
Did God really say that?
17:12-17:16
Did God really say, "I put all these trees here, but I don't want you eating off of any of them"?
17:17-17:18
Did God really say that?
17:20-17:28
Well, Eve's response seems to reflect that she's starting to go down the road with the serpent already.
17:28-17:29
Did you see that?
17:29-17:41
She said, "Well, we can eat off the trees, but God said if the tree in the midst of the Garden. Don't eat that one.
17:41-17:44
And middle of verse three, neither shall you touch it.
17:49-17:54
Adding a sense of legalism there, did God say don't touch the tree?
17:54-18:00
No. But he was already starting to get on this restrictive mindset, don't eat off any tree.
18:01-18:05
Well, he didn't say that, but there is this tree that we're not even supposed to touch.
18:07-18:11
Doubting the authenticity of God's Word opens the door to destruction.
18:15-18:20
And sadly today, liberal churches everywhere continue this presumptuous questioning.
18:24-18:25
Did God really say that?
18:26-18:27
Is that what the Bible actually says?
18:29-18:34
I mean, black and white, it really appears that it says one thing, but is that really what it says?
18:38-18:42
I just recently had a discussion with a person on this very issue.
18:43-18:44
Does the Bible really say that?
18:44-19:00
And I said, "Look, you know the side I'm going to err on every time is if that's what the Bible appears to say, then that's what it appears to say." You know, instead of looking at it and saying, "Well, that's what it says, but I'm going to do a little interpretive gymnastics and make it say something else." Bad idea.
19:02-19:04
Did God really say that?
19:04-19:07
And ironically, Genesis itself is under the biggest attack.
19:09-19:10
But you've got to watch out for step one.
19:10-19:15
When you start to doubt the authenticity of God's Word, that opens the door to destruction.
19:15-19:19
Step two, deny the accuracy of God's Word.
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Deny the accuracy of God's Word.
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Look at verses four and five.
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But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die.
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For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So this is step two.
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First of all, we cast the shadow of doubt.
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Did God really say that?
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And then Satan just comes right at her with an, "Oh, he, no, he didn't say that." No, no, no, no, no.
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You're surely not going to die.
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Flat out contradiction of God's Word.
19:56-19:58
Here again, Satan with the lie.
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God's holding out on you.
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Do you see that?
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God's holding out on you, Eve.
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God doesn't want you to eat off of that tree because God is a glory hound.
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And He doesn't want you to be like Him.
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God knows that if you eat off that tree, you're going to be like Him.
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That's why He put the restriction on that, making God sound, again, so restrictive, so unloving.
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It's the lie of the devil.
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Well, Satan left a part out, as he does.
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God is incorruptible.
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Man is not.
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I think it was John MacArthur that said, you know, concerning this passage, "God knows good and evil, true, and man, for meeting off this tree, will know good and evil." I believe it was John MacArthur that said, "God knows good and evil like a sunbeam shining on sewage." Unaffected. Knowledge of, but unaffected. But man knows evil like someone drowning in sewage.
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And if you're not settled by faith in the authority of God's Word, you've opened yourself up to anything goes.
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If you're not settled on the authority to say, "Yes, this is what God said. Yes, this is what God meant by that." that when that shadow of doubt comes in, that's going to lead to step three, disobey the authority of God's word.
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Look at verse six.
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So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food.
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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.
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And he ate. Just like to remind you here that dwelling.
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On sin. Dwelling on temptation to sin.
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Eventually is going to make you give in to sin, big caution here.
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Because you see in the text.
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I know hindsight is 20/20, what should Eve have done here?
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What should she have done?
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The minute that Satan showed up and said, did God really say, she should have just said, yes, that's what he said, and walked away.
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It's a settled deal.
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God loves us.
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He created us.
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He has our best interests in mind.
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Get behind me, Satan, right?
22:40-22:44
But in verse 6, it seems that she was dwelling.
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So she looked at the tree.
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Well, it does look good.
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says it was a delight to the eyes.
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You know that.
22:55-23:04
Not only does that food look tasty, I could just sit back and just really look at that, that's just an aesthetically appealing tree and she's thinking about it and looking at it.
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And well.
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I should desire this tree because.
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It will make me wise.
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The quicker and harder you say no to sin, the more likely you're going to mean no.
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The quicker and harder you say no to sin, the more likely you're going to mean no.
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And all I can tell you is that's been the experience of my life when I've been tempted to sin, the quicker and harder I say no, I'm not going to do that.
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Because of my relationship with Jesus Christ, because of who he says I am, I'm not going to do that.
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The quicker and harder I do that.
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The easier it is to deal with that temptation, but I can also tell you in my life when I start entertaining the thoughts, you know.
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Does the Bible really say that that's such a bad thing?
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Well, the more we dwell on it, the easier it is to start to make excuses to do it.
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Right. So don't dwell, but apparently.
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Eve dwelt on it and Adam was with her, by the way, I think a lot of people leave that out like, oh, yeah, we're in all this trouble because of Eve and Eve this and Eve.
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Well, Adam was with her.
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And they disobeyed.
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They bought the lie.
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Something is in it for me.
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And so it goes.
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Sin at its very root.
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Is selfishness.
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Write that down.
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Sin is selfishness, just write that phrase down, don't worry about the very root thing said is selfishness.
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That's just all there is to it.
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Sin is always what's in it for me.
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What's going to make me happy?
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What's the advantage for me?
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Do you know what's in the middle of the word sin?
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I, I, I, I, I want this.
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I want to be happy.
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I, I think I deserve this.
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I. That is the that is the source of sin.
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When it's no longer what is God's will, but when it becomes what is my will.
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When it's not what does God want for me, it's what do I want for me?
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What's good for me?
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What's going to help me out?
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Can you identify a time in your life when you walk this path?
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Can you?
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I'm sure if you think for a couple of seconds.
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There's a time in your life that you were faced with a temptation that the first thing you thought was, well, does the Bible really address that?
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And then maybe you were convinced, no, you know what the Bible doesn't really say.
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And then you dwell on it, you think it over and you end up saying, I'm going to do what I want to do anyways.
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So sin starts.
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When we disregard God's word, secondly, sin bring shame that we try to disguise, look at verse seven.
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It says, then the eyes of both were opened.
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And they knew that they were naked.
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And they said fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
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So as soon as they disobeyed the Lord, what was the first thing that they noticed?
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What does your Bible say?
26:54-26:56
What was the first thing they noticed?
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Go ahead, you can say it in church, they were naked.
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See, we're kind of embarrassed to even say that that was the first thing that they noticed.
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There's a there's a certain shame.
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That's tied into sexuality.
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Because of sin.
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And don't ask me to perfectly articulate this or, you know, I can't give you some kind of a systematic explanation, I can't do it, but I can tell you this.
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There is a certain shame that ties into sin, or ties into sexuality, excuse me, a certain shame that ties into sexuality because of sin.
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Does anyone need convinced of this?
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Could you say that looking out in this world today, pick up a newspaper, turn on the news, look on the Internet?
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This whole sexual perversion thing is completely out of control.
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That is directly tied into sin somehow.
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Because the first thing Adam and Eve noticed was that they were naked.
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You know, look at all the pornography, all the perversions, all the lewd acts.
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I just, I read last night about this teacher getting in trouble Because two third graders were engaged in a sexual act and the teacher was unaware of it.
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Third graders.
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I mean, doesn't that shock you?
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It does and it doesn't, right?
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This is the effect of sin.
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And now the only two people on the earth who just moments before this were naked and innocent sense that they need to cover themselves from each other.
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Something seriously went wrong.
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So what do they do?
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Well, they decide we need to make underwear.
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Right. They make themselves underpants.
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Out of what? What does your Bible say?
29:23-29:25
What does your Bible say, they made underpants out of what?
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Big leaves. Now.
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I'm not a seamstress, what do you call a male seamstress, is it still seamstress or is there like a.
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A tailor, I'm not a tailor.
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Thank you, Mark. I should have known that I'm not a tailor.
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You'd have to ask somebody that knows a lot more about these things than me.
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But how long do you think a pair of britches made out of fig leaves is going to last?
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Really? How long?
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Not long?
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Can we put a time on that?
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How long do you think it's going to last?
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What happens to the leaves in your yard after a while?
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They get dry and they get crunchy.
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How long does a pair of britches made out of fig leaves last?
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Well, I just imagine until they get crispy and then Adam or Eve sit down.
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It's like...
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Well, it's kind of humorous, but understand this.
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Man's attempts to cover shame are always like that, right?
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Man's attempts to cover up shame are always futile, but sin always makes us want to try.
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We'll cover it.
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We'll fix it.
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I can fix this.
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Something seriously went wrong here, but let's cover it up.
30:50-30:51
Let's not deal with it.
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Let's just cover it up.
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That'll be our solution.
30:57-31:05
That's why today pornography is hidden in the drawer or on the computer.
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That's why emails and texts are hidden from my parents, from my spouse.
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That's why my little secret substance, I keep hidden.
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I keep it stashed somewhere because I don't want people to find it.
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We still walk down this same path today.
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Hide the shame.
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Cover it up.
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Let's hide it.
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What sin are you trying to cover up?
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I'd like to remind you that your cover-up is as effective as leafy britches.
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Please don't quote me on that.
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Sin brings shame, we try to disguise.
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Number three, sin causes us to disengage from God.
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Sin causes us to disengage from God.
31:58-31:59
Look at verse eight.
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And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.
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And the man and his wife, so sad, hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, Where are you?
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Do you think God didn't know where he was?
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Adams, like Grand Champion of hide and seek.
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Do you really think that's what was going on here?
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God wasn't looking for information.
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God never is.
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Right?
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He wasn't looking for information.
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What was he looking for?
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He was looking for a confession.
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Adam, where are you?
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Where are you?
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And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden.
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And this is so sad.
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And I was afraid.
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I was afraid.
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Because I was naked.
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And I hid myself.
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God created man to have this perfect love relationship with and now with the entrance of sin into the world, what was man reduced to?
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I am afraid of you, God.
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I'm afraid of you.
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Sin causes us to disengage from God, the perfect fellowship was broken to the point of hiding.
33:38-33:39
Sin makes us do crazy things.
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The craziest thing that sin makes us do, though, by far.
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Is what it makes us run from God.
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The guilt makes us scared of a holy God.
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This is wrong.
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I know it's wrong, but I'm under so much conviction.
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That's why many people just stop going to church.
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It's the conviction so great and we come and we sing songs to God and we get God's Word and I got sin in my life and I'm just going to quit going to church.
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Instead of, I need this God that they're talking about, I need this God that they're worshiping, I need this God whose presence I feel in the church.
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Instead it's, I can't be around those people.
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I can't be in that place because God's presence is there.
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Running from God instead of running to God.
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This happens so many times over.
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I think of one person many years ago, I invited to church who came for a couple weeks and then stopped coming.
34:45-34:46
I ran into her again.
34:46-34:49
I said, "Hey, I haven't seen you in church." I'll never forget what she said.
34:51-34:57
I appreciate her honesty, but she said, I can't go to church and live the kind of life I want to live.
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And it was like it hit the nail on the head.
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If you'd rather choose sin, then you're not going to want to be around God.
35:13-35:16
Adam was the first person to experience that.
35:16-35:19
Sin makes me, or causes us rather, to disengage from God.
35:21-35:26
And finally, sin makes us want to deflect guilt, verses 11 through 13.
35:29-35:54
God asks his second question, he says, "Well, where are you?" His second question, again, God's looking for a confession, "Who told you that you were naked?" God's third question, "Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" Again, we put ourselves in the story, we're so holy.
35:57-36:03
But I imagine most of us would probably, probably, excuse me, respond to God in a very similar way.
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Look at Adam's response.
36:11-36:25
The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, "she gave me fruit of the tree and I ate." Now, do you see what happened here?
36:27-36:36
At this point in history, how many people, other persons I should say, how many other persons did Adam know?
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He knew two other persons in all of existence.
36:41-36:45
He knew Eve and he knew God.
36:46-37:07
So when Adam was confronted with a sin, he blamed every other person that he knew for his problem. Did you see that? He says, "The woman that you gave me." Who was he ultimately blaming? He's blaming God.
37:07-37:08
Right?
37:09-37:10
See what Adam said?
37:10-37:11
Adam was like, "You know what, God?
37:14-37:20
Back before you put me to sleep and took one of the ribs, things were, you know, things were pretty good around here.
37:20-37:22
I'm, you know, I'm not criticizing.
37:22-37:23
I'm just saying.
37:24-37:26
I'm just saying things were okay.
37:26-37:27
And then Eve came along.
37:27-37:28
I'm just saying.
37:31-37:38
You know, ever since Eve came along, things haven't been as, you know, things weren't like tight like they were before.
37:39-37:41
And he was audibly blaming God.
37:42-37:42
You put her here.
37:45-37:46
The woman that you gave me.
37:47-37:47
Wow.
37:48-37:49
Wow.
37:51-37:52
Does that sound familiar?
37:52-37:55
We live in a day when nobody's responsible for their actions.
37:55-37:56
Do you notice that?
37:57-37:58
It's not my fault.
37:59-38:00
It's not my fault.
38:01-38:06
Yes, I've done horrible things and I act horrible ways and I say terrible things, but it's not my fault.
38:06-38:07
It is how I was raised.
38:08-38:09
It's part of my culture.
38:09-38:10
It's not my fault I have an illness.
38:12-38:13
It's not my fault I have an addiction.
38:15-38:17
Or we, like Adam, blame God.
38:17-38:18
You know what, this is just the way I was made.
38:19-38:21
You know, God made me this way, that's just how I am.
38:23-38:25
Totally skipping over everything that Genesis three is teaching.
38:27-38:28
Sin makes us want to deflect guilt.
38:29-38:41
We're going to stop there in our text, but at this point you might be asking, "Well, what does all of this have to do with me?" We're going to talk more about this next week, but understand this.
38:41-38:43
Adam's sin affects the whole human race.
38:44-38:45
This is why we're getting into this.
38:46-38:53
Actually Romans 5, 12 tells us that Adam brought sin and death into the world.
38:56-38:58
And it affects the whole human race.
38:58-39:01
In fact, it's passed down from generation to generation.
39:02-39:06
We are all born dead and dying.
39:08-39:16
You are born and I am born, we're born with a sin nature, we're born with a tendency to do wrong, to do what we want to be selfish.
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Rather than to honor God and put other people ahead of ourselves, we're born with that nature, don't believe me.
39:27-39:35
After church, get with one of these families that have these little kids running around and go hang out with them for the afternoon.
39:37-39:38
And you're going to see.
39:41-39:42
Sin isn't taught to children.
39:44-39:53
I have two children, I never sat down with them and said, you know what, you're going to get far in life if you lie, sneak and cheat, you're going to get real far.
39:53-39:56
Never taught them instinctively.
39:56-40:01
They know even my seven year old who doesn't talk.
40:03-40:08
I'll catch him sometimes getting into something he shouldn't, but he's always looking over his shoulder to see if I'm watching.
40:09-40:10
I didn't teach him that.
40:12-40:13
We're born with a sin nature.
40:14-40:17
You got it from your parents who got it from their parents.
40:18-40:21
In fact, Romans eight tells us that the whole world is under a curse.
40:22-40:23
You might say, well, wait a second.
40:23-40:24
Timeout question in the back.
40:24-40:26
Yes, yes. I have a question.
40:26-40:28
Why don't I get the same choice Adam and Eve did?
40:29-40:35
Right. Why is it that when I was born, I didn't get to be in my own little garden of Eden and God put two trees there for me.
40:35-40:36
Why didn't I get the choice?
40:39-40:40
Look, it's just the way it is.
40:41-40:41
That's all I got to tell you.
40:42-40:42
That's just the way it is.
40:43-40:49
God created the first man and the first woman, and they were representative of the entire human race.
40:52-40:56
So, yes, we sin because we were still, so to speak, in the loins of Adam.
40:59-41:03
His transgression brought sin down, we inherited it.
41:04-41:06
There's nothing we can do about that.
41:09-41:19
We were born with a sin nature, a self-centered, prideful disposition that lives in this pattern that we just saw in Genesis chapter three, and we can redefine it.
41:19-41:20
We can ignore it.
41:21-41:23
We can just learn to deny guilt.
41:23-41:25
That's what a lot of people advocate.
41:25-41:26
Now, did you know that?
41:27-41:30
Just try not to feel guilty or just keep doing stuff enough.
41:30-41:38
You know, whatever makes you feel guilty, just keep doing it until you don't feel guilty anymore. The problem remains.
41:41-41:47
The problem remains because there's only one thing that can fix it.
41:50-41:51
And that's forgiveness.
41:53-41:58
Our problem fundamentally is by nature we are dead.
42:01-42:03
Dead in our trespasses, we covered that in Colossians, didn't we?
42:04-42:07
There's only one thing that can fix death, and what's that?
42:08-42:08
Life.
42:10-42:10
Life.
42:14-42:26
So next week we're going to continue in this passage and we're going to see the consequences that sin has brought specific curses on a world of sin and death.
42:29-42:32
Now we could leave here and you would walk out of there saying, "Wow, where's the hope?
42:34-42:41
Where's the hope?" Well, the first step is to properly diagnose the problem.
42:43-42:43
That's the first step.
42:45-42:46
You've got to properly diagnose the problem.
42:48-42:50
You have a sin nature.
42:51-42:56
You were born with a bent toward sin that you inherited from great-grandfather Adam.
42:59-43:01
So not only identify, but you have to personalize it.
43:02-43:04
Some people are going to walk out of here this morning going, "You know what?
43:05-43:06
That preacher was right.
43:06-43:13
People are messed up in this world." Instead of saying, "I'm affected too.
43:15-43:16
I have a sin problem.
43:17-43:18
I was born with a sin nature.
43:21-43:32
Only when we diagnose the problem and personalize it, only then can we see and embrace the solution that God has graciously provided.
43:35-43:36
Many of you have done that.
43:37-43:41
And I ask you to continue to pray for the people that come and have not done that.
43:45-44:00
When you get to Genesis chapter 3, you know, up until this point in the Bible, what we have seen of God is power, creativity, and holiness.
44:03-44:38
But now we have the opportunity to see another side of God's character as we talk about as mercy and grace. Next week we'll continue in this passage, but let's get the right diagnosis, okay? Let's stop with the excuses, let's stop with the relabeling, and let's see it from God's perspective. Only then will the cross of Jesus Christ, really.
44:42-44:44
You'll be able to understand the glory.
44:47-44:48
That's in that atoning ministry.
44:49-44:51
We bow your heads and pray with me, please.
44:56-44:57
Our father in heaven.
45:05-45:10
God, you know the burden that's on my heart to even share a message like this.
45:10-45:12
I hate to leave things hanging.
45:12-45:15
And I know a lot of people in here know the rest of the story.
45:17-45:19
But your word is very clear.
45:23-45:26
That our problem is not our environment, our problems from inside.
45:29-45:33
And that's why we can't use the things in our environment to fix the problem.
45:33-45:37
A solution has to come from the inside out, but we can't do that.
45:41-45:52
I pray, God, as we look at this pattern of sin, it just more and more makes us want to run to our heavenly father, say, God, you're the only one in the universe that can do inside out ministry.
45:52-45:54
You're the only one, God, that can.
45:55-45:56
They can change me.
45:58-45:59
They can give me life.
46:01-46:02
You're the only one.
46:07-46:16
Father, I thank you that you've given us this account in your Word so that we can properly diagnose.
46:19-46:32
And as we continue in our series over the next couple of weeks, Father, I pray that we would passionately embrace the cure.
46:38-46:42
We praise you for the grace that you've poured on us in Jesus Christ.
46:44-46:45
It's in His name that we pray.
46:46-46:46
Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Genesis 3:1-13
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.
Isaiah 9:6 - For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Matthew 12:23 - And all the people were amazed, and said, "Can this be the Son of David?"
Mark 6:3 - Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him.
Matthew 16:13 - Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"
Mark 1:1 - The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
00:00-00:01
Alright, you ready to turn to the word?
00:02-00:02
Yes.
00:03-00:09
Alright, let's turn in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 9.
00:09-00:17
I just want to share part of, we're going to look at the whole verse, but I really want to focus just on one particular part of it.
00:18-00:20
Isaiah chapter 9.
00:23-00:31
While you're turning there, I want you to think about What is the best gift that you've ever received?
00:32-00:34
Not just for Christmas, but let's get beyond that.
00:34-00:42
Whether it's birthday, anniversary, Valentine's Day, maybe it was a Christmas gift.
00:42-00:47
Think about what was the best gift you've ever received, and think about what was the worst gift you've ever received.
00:48-00:49
What do you think about that for a second?
00:54-00:55
Just think about that. Do you have it in your head?
00:57-00:59
While you're thinking, I'll share mine.
00:59-01:14
I'll start first of all, I don't know if I should say worst or weirdest, but for Aaron's and my anniversary one year, this lady got us this basket of stuff.
01:16-02:10
The stuff that was in this basket, it was, I don't really know if there's a word to quite express but there were things in there like there was a an apron like you'd wear if you're working at Dairy Queen and there was a yellow beanie baby and there was the entire set of like it was like trading cards of the 1992 Pittsburgh Steelers and there was some kind of a doily thing at least I think stuff and more stuff there was any rhyme or reason it was almost like somebody just went around their house and said "Oh I forgot Jeff's anniversary, let's just grab something and throw it in the basket." It was just weird.
02:12-02:16
That was, that was I don't know if I should say the worst gift, but that was the weirdest gift.
02:16-02:18
Anybody else get like a really weird or bad gift?
02:19-02:23
If the person that gave you the gift is sitting here maybe don't share that one.
02:25-02:26
Don't want to ruin Christmas or anything.
02:28-02:28
The weirdest, the best.
02:30-02:30
A fire hydrant.
02:31-02:32
A fire hydrant!
02:33-02:34
Blake got me a fire hydrant.
02:34-02:38
I was blowing smoke saying, "Wouldn't it be cool if I had a fire hydrant?" She totally got me one.
02:39-02:40
(audience laughing)
02:40-02:48
Said, "My gift for you is in the back of my trunk, "but you're gonna have to get it out." I'm like, "No." - A real fire hydrant!
02:49-02:50
I saw that!
02:51-02:52
Where did you score that?
02:52-02:53
That's why you don't have golf.
02:55-03:00
One of my friends, her dad, I forget what he does, he works for the city,
03:08-03:08
(laughing)
03:08-03:09
Wow!
03:09-03:10
Is that why you don't have dogs?
03:11-03:11
Impressive!
03:12-03:12
(laughing)
03:12-03:14
Anybody else get a bat or a weird gift?
03:15-03:16
Anybody else?
03:19-03:20
You got socks?
03:20-03:21
Well, you need socks sometimes.
03:23-03:24
Jane Auer, yes.
03:24-03:26
I didn't get this, I gave it.
03:27-03:27
(laughter)
03:29-03:31
I have a lovely sister.
03:31-03:33
She's sweet, she's very quiet.
03:33-03:35
A lot like Laura.
03:36-03:37
(laughter)
03:38-03:39
Quiet.
03:41-03:42
(laughter)
03:43-03:48
I gave her, okay, speaking of -- very practical at this time in my life.
03:48-03:52
I gave her, because she needed it, a case of oil.
03:56-04:23
here it's
04:25-04:26
(audience laughing)
04:30-04:32
All right, we have a new winner.
04:32-04:33
(audience laughing)
04:36-04:39
Can anybody talk painted tree fungus?
04:40-04:49
(audience laughing) What are your students doing?
04:51-04:57
(audience laughing) I think Andy Nauer was the most bizarre.
04:57-04:58
How about a really good present?
04:59-05:01
Let's get all warm and fuzzy here.
05:01-05:03
Who got a really, really good present one day?
05:03-05:03
Will?
05:03-05:09
Today I got a whistle with a thermometer on it, a compass, and a light.
05:10-05:10
Wow.
05:11-05:11
All in one go.
05:11-05:12
Wow. Who got you that?
05:14-05:15
I don't know. My mom or my dad.
05:15-05:16
Your mom or your dad?
05:17-05:17
[laughter]
05:18-05:18
Okay.
05:21-05:22
[laughter]
05:22-05:27
I mean, that's cool, but we've got to open it up for everybody else here.
05:28-05:29
Anybody else?
05:30-05:31
Eric, what do you want to do?
05:33-05:34
-AKSUSNC Combat Knife.
05:36-05:36
-That's hot-wired.
05:39-05:40
[laughter]
05:41-05:43
-Will's like, "I'm going to whistle and you're going to bite."
05:43-05:44
[laughter]
05:46-05:49
I think your dad is very wise, Will.
05:50-05:50
(laughter)
05:52-05:55
I just don't know if you're ready for a combat night.
05:55-05:57
I don't think I'm ready for a regular night.
05:58-05:59
Just stick with the whistle.
05:59-06:03
If you get in trouble, you blow your whistle and Aaron will come with his combat night.
06:04-06:04
(laughter)
06:04-06:06
It's my silent Aaron whistle.
06:06-06:07
Right, right.
06:08-06:09
Any other cool gifts?
06:11-06:13
Jay, you got-- This is what I did to Steve.
06:14-06:17
When I turned 16, my dad bought me a motorcycle.
06:17-06:17
Oh.
06:17-06:18
A lot of 100.
06:19-06:20
We destroyed it.
06:20-06:21
[LAUGHTER]
06:21-06:22
We destroyed it.
06:26-06:31
That would be-- he knew we would go to the hospital at some point.
06:35-06:36
Any other cool ones?
06:40-06:50
One of the coolest I ever got-- if you know my wife, it's just hilarious, because if she buys you a present, you're getting it that day.
06:50-06:52
She can't. She just can't.
06:53-06:56
Every time. My birthday could be a month away.
06:56-07:02
If she goes shopping a month prior and gets a present, you're getting it that day.
07:02-07:04
She just can't keep surprises.
07:05-07:09
One time we took our son down to speech, and it was a few weeks before my birthday.
07:11-07:15
I think I was with my son at the speech thing, and she went out to get my birthday present.
07:15-07:18
So we get in the car, she's like, "Do you want it, do you want it, do you want it?"
07:18-07:19
(audience laughs and murmurs)
07:19-07:20
Where is she?
07:20-07:44
I totally messed with her, I'm like, "No, no, If she had a tail, she'd be wagging.
07:45-07:45
(audience laughing)
07:46-07:52
So I pull it out and I'm like, "I love ya, thank you."
07:53-07:53
(audience laughing)
07:54-08:01
I mean, she's so excited, I'm like, "Thanks." And then you know what I said next, right?
08:02-08:02
Exactly!
08:03-08:04
I mean, you were there, weren't you?
08:04-08:09
I'm like, "What is this?" She's like, "It's an iPod!" What was my next question?
08:10-08:11
What's an iPod?
08:11-08:11
Exactly!
08:12-08:13
Well, it's an iPod.
08:13-08:16
And she said, it does everything.
08:18-08:22
And I said, it's like the size of a credit card.
08:22-08:23
How can it do anything?
08:24-08:32
Well, if you have one of these, you've learned that once you get one, you can't live without them, because it does do everything.
08:33-08:35
So that was one of the coolest presents I ever got.
08:38-09:13
But as we turn to the word, I think sometimes christmas is like this to a lot of people god's like i provided the most amazing gift and i think a lot of people look at god's gift and they're like what do they say what is it it's god's son and then what is people's next question what's he doing What can he do for me?
09:15-09:18
And I want to talk about that for just a few moments this morning.
09:18-09:21
Isaiah chapter 9, look at verse 6.
09:21-09:28
It says, "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given.
09:29-09:43
And the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
09:44-09:48
I want you to notice here in this passage, I really want us to focus on that first phrase.
09:49-10:34
It says, "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given." And the first thing you have to notice here in this prophecy about the Christ, 700 and some odd years before Jesus was even on the earth This prophecy about the Messiah already is telling us that he is going to be fully human and fully God Notice the Messiah comes as a born child And as God's Son he was not born he was what he was given to see the difference there You catch that?
10:34-10:43
Understand that when we think of the Nativity scene, that wasn't the debut of God's Son.
10:44-10:54
As if He never existed prior to, and all of a sudden Jesus Christ suddenly came into existence because He was born.
10:55-10:59
In fact, if you've been with us through the Colossians series, we see that Jesus Christ is God.
11:00-11:16
has been and he always will be. So when it says a child is born, child is talking about the age of the incarnation. When the incarnation happened, God came into the world as a baby.
11:18-11:26
But when he says a son is given, son refers to the relationship to the Heavenly Father.
11:27-11:33
In fact, Jesus Christ is often identified throughout Scripture as being a son.
11:34-11:34
Did you know that?
11:35-11:44
If you have one of these little handouts we gave you, if you look at the back and want to follow along, we're going to see what kind of son has God given.
11:46-11:47
And I want to go through four of them quickly.
11:47-11:53
These are four ways that Jesus Christ is identified in Scripture, and these are also very important.
11:55-11:58
But they all kind of teach us something a little bit different about him.
11:59-12:01
First of all, number one, the son of David.
12:03-12:05
Or you could say Jesus the Sovereign.
12:06-12:07
Jesus the Sovereign.
12:09-12:11
Many times in scripture Jesus is called the son of David.
12:11-12:15
I just put some examples of each of these on your outline.
12:15-12:32
Matthew 12, 23, "And the people were amazed and said, 'Can this be the son of David?'" And you're like, "Well, wait, I thought that people thought Joseph was his dad." Understand that "son of David" meant more than that.
12:33-12:44
In 2 Samuel 7 and verse 16, if you read that passage, God promises David that one of his descendants will always be on the throne, eternally.
12:44-12:49
2 Samuel 7, God says, "David, your throne is an eternal throne.
12:49-13:02
One of your descendants will reign forever." So when Jesus Christ is referred to as the son of David, they're looking at the royal lineage of Jesus.
13:02-13:08
In fact, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel all prophesied about the king who would rule forever.
13:09-13:16
Interestingly, when you look at the genealogies, and I know you guys studied the genealogies in the Bible, right?
13:18-13:20
You guys studied it, okay.
13:20-13:21
Generations.
13:21-13:22
You guys read those, right?
13:23-13:24
They're very important.
13:24-13:33
In fact, if you read the genealogy in Matthew chapter 1, he traces Jesus' human lineage through Joseph.
13:34-13:37
Do you know that David is in Joseph's line?
13:37-13:38
Did you know that?
13:39-13:43
So there's the fulfillment of the promise through Joseph.
13:45-13:51
But when you read Luke chapter 3, Luke traces Jesus' lineage through his mother Mary.
13:51-13:55
And do you know it goes through David on her side too?
13:56-13:56
Isn't that incredible?
13:59-14:01
Both of them, through David.
14:05-14:15
Now, when we talk about Jesus the Sovereign, some people here might be asking, well, why isn't Jesus reigning over all the earth today?
14:15-14:16
You ever wondered that?
14:17-14:24
Or maybe you've worded the question this way, and I've shared with you before, this was the thing that always plagued my dad till the day that he died.
14:24-14:26
He asked me this question so many times.
14:26-15:04
He says, "Jeff, if God is so good and God is so loving "and God's in charge of all this, "why is there so much evil in the world?" And people could easily, you know, be tempted to look at the Bible and say, "Well, maybe Jesus isn't reigning. Maybe He's not the King." Real quick Old Testament lesson. In the Old Testament when the prophets looked at the, you know, the coming Messiah, they saw that the Messiah would come, the Messiah would suffer, and the Messiah would reign. But there's something that the Old Testament prophets didn't see.
15:05-15:46
And there is a period of time between the suffering and the reigning of the Messiah. And that gap is what we would call the church age. And I have so much to tell you about that, in fact we're going to be doing a whole sermon series on that later in 2012, because Jesus very clearly described what that gap was going to look like between explains it in His Word, we can just look around us and say, "Yeah, that's exactly the days that we're living in." So, why isn't He reigning now?
15:46-15:52
Well, the answer to that is Jesus is reigning now.
15:53-15:59
And He's reigning in the lives of His people who are about to need Him.
16:03-16:08
You know, someday the Bible says, someday he is going to come and establish his kingdom and reign over all the earth.
16:08-16:16
But until that happens, the subject of his kingdom are those of us who are willing to acknowledge his lordship now.
16:17-16:19
So the son of David, Jesus the sovereign.
16:20-16:23
Secondly, in scripture, Jesus is called the son of Mary.
16:24-16:26
Or on your outline, you could put Jesus the supernatural.
16:29-16:30
Jesus the supernatural.
16:31-16:41
Actually back in Isaiah 7, 14, God promised that a virgin will conceive and give birth and the child will be called Emmanuel, which is God with us.
16:42-16:44
And you can trace this throughout scripture.
16:44-16:50
It seems like when God wants to do something really big, God's like, "I have big plans coming up." Do you know how He starts?
16:53-16:56
A lot of times in scripture, God starts with a woman who can't have children.
16:56-16:57
Do you notice that?
16:59-17:27
common thing Genesis 1130 Sarah Abraham's wife was much too old to be having children she had Isaac just as God promised judges 13 - Manoah's wife had Samson she was barren at the time that God promised her son she had Samson first Samuel 1 - Hannah had Samuel just as God God promised.
17:28-17:32
Luke 1, 7, Elizabeth had John the Baptist just as God promised.
17:33-17:35
So now we come to Mary.
17:36-17:41
So once again God says I'm going to do something big and I'm going to start with someone who can't have children.
17:42-17:52
But you know the difference between Mary and all of these other ladies is that Mary had not yet known a man when the Holy Spirit conceived in her.
17:55-17:57
So Jesus Christ is the supernatural child.
18:00-18:01
He's the supernatural child.
18:02-18:13
You know, I think sometimes at Christmas, when we think of the nativity story, I think sometimes we get this feeling like it's a story about overcoming adversity.
18:13-18:14
Do you ever feel that?
18:14-18:15
Like, like Rocky.
18:16-18:21
Like, oh, this poor pregnant woman was traveling and nobody would put them up.
18:21-18:30
So they like had their baby in a barn like the shepherds showed up and the Christmas story is so much more than that.
18:32-18:39
It's God fulfilling a promise that he was going to come and be with his people in the most personal way possible.
18:42-18:43
Jesus is supernatural.
18:45-18:46
Jesus is the son of Mary.
18:47-18:49
Thirdly, Jesus is the son of man.
18:51-18:53
You know, this was Jesus' favorite term for himself.
18:54-18:57
Or you could say, Jesus the servant.
18:57-19:05
When Jesus referred to himself more often than anything, he referred to himself as the Son of Man over 80 times in the Gospels.
19:06-19:08
Jesus called himself the Son of Man.
19:10-19:20
And it's a term to describe his humiliation, his humbling himself, becoming our sympathetic high priest.
19:24-19:28
And then finally, Jesus is the Son of God.
19:30-19:32
Or you can say in your outline, Jesus the Savior.
19:34-19:35
Jesus the Savior.
19:40-19:44
Luke 135, I have in your outline, common verse for the Christmas time.
19:44-19:47
The angel said to Mary, the Holy Spirit will come upon you.
19:48-20:03
"And the power of the Most High will overshadow you, and for that reason the Holy Offspring shall be called the Son of God." It's interesting when you read through your Bibles in the New Testament who calls Jesus the Son of God.
20:05-20:07
His disciples called Him the Son of God when He calmed the storm.
20:09-20:14
The centurion at the cross, remember, said, "Surely this man was," what?
20:15-20:19
"The Son of God." John the Baptist called Jesus the Son of God.
20:20-20:35
Martha, Paul, you see the angels and the demons and even Jesus himself used the phrase "of himself." And there were two times that God the Father referred to Jesus as being his Son.
20:35-20:36
Do you know what two times they were?
20:37-20:41
When Jesus was baptized and into transfiguration.
20:42-20:44
Jesus is my Son.
20:44-21:00
He said, "This is my beloved Son, God the Father." to him. So Jesus being the Son of God, just as he was 100% human, he's also 100% God.
21:02-21:16
So a child is born and a son is what? A son is given. You know this time of year we think a lot about gifts and this is God's gift.
21:19-21:22
And the question is what have you done with God's gift?
21:24-21:25
What have you done with it?
21:26-21:28
We shared at the beginning some good gifts and some bad gifts.
21:31-21:34
But what have you done with God's gift of Jesus Christ?
21:37-21:40
There's really one of four ways you can respond to a gift.
21:42-21:46
Let's pretend it's my birthday.
21:47-21:48
It's not.
21:48-21:49
It's September 23.
21:51-21:53
I don't see anybody writing that down.
21:54-21:57
It's September 23, and you'll never insult me with cash.
22:00-22:09
But let's pretend it's my birthday, and you show up at my door, and you knock on my door, you say, "Happy birthday, Pastor Jeff.
22:09-22:14
I bought you a present." I understand that there's four ways I can respond to that.
22:16-22:22
I can say, "First of all, I don't want your stupid present," and slam the door in your face.
22:23-22:25
Can I do that? I won't, but I could.
22:26-22:28
I don't know how you put mine on the porch.
22:30-22:30
[LAUGHTER]
22:38-22:39
He's a little behind that.
22:40-22:42
It's his favorite item in the whole world.
22:43-22:44
Hecklers.
22:44-22:46
Hecklers at church on Christmas.
22:46-22:47
[LAUGHTER]
22:49-22:50
That's one way I could respond, right?
22:51-22:52
I don't want your stupid present.
22:53-23:04
Another way I could respond is, you're like, "Happy birthday, Pastor Jeff, "I got you a present." And I take it and I look at it, and I say, "You know what, I really appreciate this.
23:04-23:09
"How much joy are you for it?" How would you feel about that?
23:10-23:11
Little, insulted baby.
23:13-23:14
I pull out my wallet.
23:15-23:16
How much joy are you?
23:17-23:24
Another way I could respond is you come and say, Happy birthday, Pastor Jeff.
23:25-23:30
And I take your present, and I say, this is great.
23:31-23:34
I can tell that this is something that I really enjoy.
23:35-23:37
And I set it down by the door.
23:39-23:45
And you come back and visit me next year, and it's still sitting there with an inch of dust on it.
23:47-23:49
What would you think then?
23:50-23:59
he seemed like he was excited about it but he really didn't seem to do anything with it.
24:00-24:13
or option number four is happy birthday pastor Jeff and I take the gift and I say thank you and I receive it.
24:14-24:22
you realize the grace of God in scripture is called a gift. Did you know that?
24:23-24:48
Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is debt, but the gift of God is eternal life. And that eternal life is found in Jesus Christ. So understand, and I'm going to close with this, those are the four ways you can respond to Jesus. I'm asking how have you responded to God's gift? That God says, "Here is my son," and some people say, "I don't need him." I don't need them.
24:51-25:06
So many people so arrogantly think that you can achieve a right relationship with God, whether it's on your own merits, on the amount of good works that you do, I just try to be a nice person, I never try to hurt people, I don't need Jesus.
25:09-25:15
And truth be told, those are the people separated from God forever in hell.
25:16-25:25
That's the common denominator among everybody in hell, is that they didn't think they needed God's grace.
25:26-25:27
I don't need it.
25:27-25:27
I don't need it.
25:28-25:29
Some people just slam the door.
25:29-25:30
They just slam the door.
25:30-25:31
I don't need it.
25:32-25:34
You ever share the gospel with someone and they just slam the door?
25:35-25:37
Maybe that's somebody here this morning saying, "You know what?
25:39-25:42
I haven't seen before what the big deal is.
25:48-25:50
Well, option two, some people do that.
25:51-25:56
Some people do that with Jesus where, like I said, I take out my wallet and offer to pay you.
25:56-25:59
They do the same thing.
25:59-26:17
They think, "Okay, well, if I'm going to be a follower of Jesus, that means, okay, that means I'm going to have to start doing this and I'm going to have to start doing that and here's the rules and from now on I have to have this haircut and these clothes and I can't do this and I have to do this and thinking that spirituality is attained by keeping the rules.
26:20-26:24
As if to say, well God I see what you've done so I'm going to earn that salvation.
26:27-26:29
It is a gift.
26:30-26:34
And just as you would be insulted if somebody tried to pay you for a gift and you got them.
26:34-26:44
It's an insult to God to say I see this grace that you bestowed now let me try to buy it from you. It's an insult.
26:48-26:52
Honestly I think option three, I think that's what happens the most in churches.
26:53-27:04
I think a lot of people hear the gospel message that God says here's my gift. I think most people sitting in churches go yes, yes, that's exactly what I need.
27:05-27:09
Grace, Jesus, yes, yes, yes, yes, that's exactly what I need.
27:09-27:18
I need Jesus and they put him down and see you on Sunday.
27:20-27:24
As if I want to receive the gift, but I'm not really doing anything with the gift.
27:27-27:30
I would suggest to you that that's not truly receiving the gift.
27:32-27:36
Thinking a gift is nice is not the same as receiving a gift.
27:36-27:39
Admiring a gift is not the same as receiving it.
27:40-27:42
That's what people do with Jesus.
27:45-27:50
So it's our prayer for you this morning that what you've done with God's gift is option 4.
27:51-28:13
To say, "You know what? This is what I need." "I need the grace that only God can give through Jesus Christ." John chapter 1 verse 12 says, "To all who received Him, Jesus Christ, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.
28:15-28:16
What have you done with God's gift?
28:18-28:27
We're going to get a lot of stuff for Christmas, and some of the stuff we're going to keep, and some of the stuff we're going to take back, and some of the stuff we're going to throw in the closet.
28:29-28:31
What are you going to do with God's gift?
28:33-28:34
You bow your heads and pray with me please.
28:38-28:47
Father in heaven, as we come to the close of this service together, I thank you again for everyone that you've brought here.
28:47-28:56
It's just so exciting to see that once again you've performed a miracle in planting this church.
28:56-29:30
But God, we come not to celebrate that a church was planted, we come to celebrate that the salvation that you purchased. I said that you might present the church spotless, spotless without blemish, without wrinkle, that you might present this holy spotless bride. So Father we thank you and I pray that this is a time of self-examination for all of us.
29:35-29:45
That as we've been spending so much time these last just few months, when we meet together we've been talking about what your Word says about who Jesus is.
29:45-29:52
Help us to really take that self-examination and are we in Christ?
29:54-29:55
Is Christ in us?
29:56-30:00
What have we done with the gift that you so freely give?
30:06-30:19
Father, we do look forward to the day when Jesus Christ reigns over all the earth, and until then, might he reign in the hearts and lives of everyone here.
30:22-30:25
We pray these things in the mighty name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
30:26-30:26
Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Isaiah 9:6
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.
