You can hear the sermon on my podcast at: https://www.buzzsprout.com/697261/2580706
The Fall - What's My Problem?
Intro:
• Mrs. Billings yellow cake cover up. (https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/74377/hypocrisy-by-sermoncentral?ref=TextIllustrationSerps)
• Yellow cake
• What’s our problem? Same as hers.
• Memory verse – Gen. 3:6
• Walk through the process together:
1. Temptation
• [slide] Creating a seed of doubt - Did God really say?
Genesis 3:1–3 The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the LORD God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. 3 “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’ ”
o Essentially, what is God withholding? What if it’s really great?
o Her response: To exaggerate God’s command. To give another interpretation to what God has explicitly told us.
o But that only increases the doubt in her mind.
• Half-truths - You won’t die! -
Genesis 3:4 “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman.
o He implies God is not good and gracious but selfish and deceptive (which what Satan is).
o Hiding the price tags.
o Deception. Hiding the consequences of our choices.
John 8:44 For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies.
• Become your own god. - you will be like God.
Genesis 3:5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”
o Eyes opened - a way of saying gaining knowledge, awareness independent of God.
o We all seek control of our destiny, autonomy. Pride.
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2. Decisions
Genesis 3:6–7 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.
1 John 2:16 For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.
• She took the bait.
• We aren’t any different:
o We want independence but soon find ourselves isolated and insecure. We want intimacy but not the commitment and wind up with separation and emotional isolation.
• The conclusion is that we make lousy little gods of our own destiny.
• Our choices, as we well know, have consequences.
3. What are the Consequences?
Hiding
Genesis 3:8–10 When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the LORD God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the LORD God among the trees. 9 Then the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” 10 He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.”
• They hid from one another and from God.
• Guilt and embarrassment.
• Ultimately ineffective.
Blaming
Genesis 3:11–13 “Who told you that you were naked?” the LORD God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.” 13 Then the LORD God asked the woman, “What have you done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”
• Adam goes very quickly from joy at having a mate to throwing her under the bus.
• Evades accountability.
• Eve tries to shift everything onto the serpent.
• God’s authority is undermined through the serpent’s trickery and humanity’s rebellion.
Proverbs 28:13 People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy.
Discipline
• Discipline because there’s a point to all of this.
Genesis 3:14–15 Then the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all animals, domestic and wild. You will crawl on your belly, groveling in the dust as long as you live.
Genesis 3:16 Then he said to the woman, “I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.”
Genesis 3:17–19 And to the man he said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. 18 It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains. 19 By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.”
• God isn’t going to be ignored.
• Our impulse is to hide from God when we sin.
• His impulse is to seek and save what has been lost.
• Discipline is necessary. So Adam and Eve receive appropriate discipline for their rebellion.
• Where we once were in dominion over creation, now creation fights against our stewardship. Where once we knew one another perfectly, now the struggle to control one another dominates.
• God also begins his strategy to bring everything back from chaos to perfection.
Genesis 3:15 And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”
• A prophecy of Jesus and his victory over Satan.
Conclusion:
• What’s our response?
• We see ourselves in Adam and Eve. We need to see how God is even now working to restore every one of us to himself.
