Our First Broken Relationship
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Hope in the Broken
Hope in the Broken
Intro:
Good Morning!
My name is Zach Klundt, and I am the Associate Pastor here at Freshwater.
It is amazing to finally be here with you all.
I answered the call to come to Freshwater at the beginning of November and after two long months I am here and I am so excited to be with you all.
I do not come alone— here is a picture of my family!
That is my lovely beautiful wife Brittni.
We have been married for 12 1/2 years and I fall more in love with her each day.
She is amazing— she is my biggest supporter, she is unbelievably loving to others and just has a heart for people.
Next up we have our 9 year old Evelynn Marie— We call her Evey for short.
She was our little miracle baby.
She was born 1lb 12oz— 13inches long— she could fit in the palm of my hand.
Her story is amazing and I can’t want to share it with you all someday.
But she is not 1lb 12oz anymore— she is a giant.
Who loves to read and she has wit for days.
Then we have Rosalee Kay who we call Rosy for short.
She is our middle child and our strong willed blessing.
She is going to rule the world some day just so you know.
I love her spunk and her humor.
Then durning the pandemic when we all were forced inside— 9 months later our third child was born.
This Little guy is Corona Virus… I’m kidding that is not his name.
Could you imagine!
No this is Theodor Alan and we call him Theo for short.
This dude is consistently on the go.
His laugh and snuggles will melt your heart and you will forget why you were ever mad at him in the first place.
He is our surprise third baby.
And last and definitely least is Albus our Dog— We also got him durning the pandemic.
And Albus is a double-doodle which means he is double dumb.
I wasn’t even going to show you a photo of him but my girls told me I had to.
He is just a goofball and he has separation anxiety.
I never have to worry about him running away because he would miss us too much— He is always with one of us.
So for those keep track we ended up with a Pandemic Puppy and a Covid baby, and we got covid twice— We did covid well?
Anyway—
So that is my family.
I love being with them!
They are my favorite people minus Albus.
We come to you from Galesburg IL.
I served as the youth director at Bethel Baptist church for 5 1/2 years.
I cannot express my gratitude enough for Bethel.
We loved our time there and we were so sad to leave but God opened may to many doors to come here that by not coming we felt like we would have been disobedient to His calling.
So we said yes and now here we are.
And I am so looking forward to serving here as one of your pastors.
So over the next couple of weeks, months, years— We want to get to know you so please come up and introduce yourself to us.
That would be awesome!
If you are new to Freshwater, we have something in common.
Pastor Robert kicked off a series last week in Acts which was about how we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to go out and be witnesses to those around us.
He will be speaking next week picking up in Acts.
When the Elders preach we will be preaching on the topics of relationships found in scripture.
Two weeks ago you heard from one of our Elders Mark Brinkman who spoke on being Image Bearers from Gen 1:26 and if you have not heard that message yet, I would encourage you to do so.
And I get the opportunity to speak today on a another part of this relationship series.
And this relationship that we are talking about today is our first broken relationship.
I am sure we all can remember that first heart break we all had.
Mine was in the 1st grade Cami Facuett— I tried so hard to empress her with my monkey bar skills— which was me jumping to them and then falling down but nailing the landing.
She like Josh McManus instead.
He could make it across the monkey bars.
Broke my heart.
But we all remember those first heart breaks— they stick with us.
But the first true broken relationship that ever occured was in the Garden of Eden between God and Adam and Eve.
And the aftermath of this broken relationship is still felt even to this day.
But don’t check out on me yet.
Because the main idea I want us to walk away with today is a simple truth.
Main Idea: Even in our broken state there is hope
Even in our broken state there is hope.
And if you are new to the Freshwater or to church or Christianity— that may strike you as a bit weird or goofy.
Because it may sound like I am just assuming that we all have a broken status.
And you did not mishear me that is the truth.
Every single person in this building and in the world is broken.
As in I am broken.
Zach is broken.
I am broken.
You are broken.
We are broken
When we hear that word broken it comes with a lot of baggage.
When we hear that word we think damaged, or useless, worthless.
Me: When something breaks in my house I throw it away.
I toss it out.
I do not dwell on it.
I throw it away and if it is worth replacing then I will replace it.
It is as simple as that.
I don’t like to hold on to things.
We just moved and we got rid of so much and if you helped move us in you might be thinking— not nearly enough.
Thank you all for coming to help by the way it was very kind of you.
But when I have things that are broken my default is to throw them away.
We all do this though right?
We: When something is broken in your home do you tend to keep it or throw it out.
Why?
Because we know it will not be the same.
Of course there are two types of people when it comes to things that are broken.
We have the Chucker and the Saver—
The Chucker throw it all out— nothing is safe that hasn’t been used in two weeks.
The saver is the one going through the trash of the Chucker every week— looking to save something they can reuse.
We don’t have to raise our hands because that would cause us all to judge each other.
You see the Chucker would see the saver’s mission to save everything as futile and fruitless.
And the Saver sees the chucker as wasteful and careless.
And honestly we don’t need that judgement here.
Yet even if there are those who would save everything at the end of the day when something is broken we know that it will never be the same as it was.
No matter the amount of duct tape you put on that thing, it is never going to be the same.
It will never work the same.
There is not much hope for that broken item or thing.
So what I want us to understand before we dive into the text is that we are all broken and in our state of brokenness we deserve to be tossed.
No matter if you came in on cloud 9 or you came in this morning in the valley we are all broken in here today.
Some of us know it and others are just trying to keep it hidden from everyone else.
As we turn to God word He offers us something even in our brokenness.
And that is hope— which is way better then duct tape.
Even in our broken state there is hope
But our broken condition was not always broken.
No actually it was good and perfect.
At the beginning of the world there was God and only God.
And then God spoke and created everything.
And he created it good.
We read in Genesis 1 about how God created good.
God saw that it was good.
We see that phrase used over and over again during the days of creation.
Everything was good and perfect in creation.
And then God created man (Adam) and he put man in the garden but seeing that there was not a suitable suitor for man— God creates woman (Eve).
And Adam is blown away by her.
Then the man said,
“This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man.”
Fellas there is your valentine days card right there.
Adam is just blown away by Eve.
And the chapter ends with Adam and Eve being naked and together in God’s perfect garden.
God:
Then we get to chapter 3.
And everything changes.
Two chapters into this book and everything changes.
If you have a copy of God’s word I would invite you to turn to Genesis 3.
For me it’s page 2—
Let me show you the worst day in history.
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 the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
This serpent or snake— comes up to Eve and talks to her.
And we may begin to ask a ton of questions here.
Who is the snake?
How can the snake talk?
Why are snakes talking?
Are snakes superior to other animals?
How did this snake know so much?
All are great questions but we are not going to answer them today.
Because it is about what the serpent says that is more important than who or what the serpent is.
The serpent was created good.
It was created with good intentions.
But something happened to that serpent.
We understand that something was satan.
He used the serpent as an instrument of destruction and chaos.
So satan speaks to Eve through this serpent and he begins with a question.
Did God actually say you can’t eat from any of the fruit here?
Satan begins with a question causing doubt rather than just jumping into an augment.
And his question begins to place doubt on God’s word.
And Eve is now in a place where she is judging God’s word.
Satan exaggerates by saying— you can’t eat from any of the trees here?
To which Eve responds--
But before we get into her response let’s look at what Satan is attacking.
We jump back to chapter 2
God created Adam and then he told him this.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of 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.”
God gives Adam one command— one rule— do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
When you do you shall surly die.
This is what Satan is attacking.
This command.
And Eve responds with:
We can eat of the trees in the garden,
but God told us not to eat from the tree in the middle of the garden—
Nor should we touch it--
lest you die.
We may think— Good answer Eve!
Heck yes combat that snake!
but the devil is in the details.
Notice Eve did not say that we are free to eat from any tree we would like.
That is what God granted Adam and Eve— they could eat any tree.
But one—
Eve then says that you can’t eat from it nor even touch it—
God did not say this.
He only said that you should not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
and God said that if you do you will surely die.
But Eve changed that to lest you die.
Eve failed to capture the urgency of certain death.
It seemed more like she was saying huh— you die.
And that seems like I may just be nitpicking but Satan heard this and pounced.
He responds by removing the punishment of not listening to God.
He says: Oh Eve— you won’t die.
Satan again introduces doubt into Eve’s mind.
Then Satan presents a reason why God said not to eat from this tree.
He says: God knows that when you eat of it— you eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good from evil.
Eve believed the lie that God is keeping this from her
She believed that God was holding her back.
The reason why satan was able to put these thoughts and tempt Eve is because Eve did not stay true to God’s word, she didn’t know it and in her heart she began to doubt God’s goodness.
So what does she do?
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
Eve saw that it was Good for food.
Did you catch that?
She saw that the tree was good for food.
I do not think Moses, who wrote Genesis through divine direction by God said it this way by accident.
Eve saw it and it was good.
Over and over in Gen 1 we read that God saw and it was good.
Now Eve who sees this fruit she saw it and she saw that is was good for food.
She saw the perfection of God’s creation and said yeah— I want that.
It was pleasing to her eyes.
Satan promised her wisdom like God.
She had this desire to be wise like God.
Understand that Eve was present in the beginning after Adam--
She saw what God was capable of and I believe there was a piece of her that wanted to be like Him.
In his wisdom and capabilities.
So she took and she ate.
And it doesn’t stop there she gives it to her husband.
Who takes and eats.
And both eyes were opened.
And in that moment— sin entered into the world.
Through the disobedience of Adam and Eve sin now was present in a no longer perfect world.
They did not all of a sudden gain all this incredible wisdom instead they were burdened with shame and guilt because they were naked and exposed.
So they cover themselves up because they didn’t want the other to see them.
Only two people present and now it mattered that they were naked— because sin had entered into the world.
And then God enters the scene.
And both Adam and Eve hide because they heard him— God was a physical presence in the garden— we read this as he was walking in the garden.
And God calls out to his creation— Adam where are you?
And Adam comes before God and says here I am, I heard you but I was afraid because I was naked- so I hide from you.
I felt shame and it was too much for me so I hide.
And God knows what happened— he knew it was going to happen.
So his question is not a question out of ignorance but rather God wanted confession from Adam.
And here is where we start to see the brokenness of this relationship in full swing.
As Adam claps back at God— it was the woman who you gave me.
Some gift God, oh yeah, great gift.
Everything was perfect until you created her.
Now look what you have done.
That woman that you gave me— she made me do it.
So really God it is your fault.
Adam is blaming God.
God then turns to Eve and says what have you done.
It would seem that Eve may not have understood the full weight of what happened.
But she too blames the snake— also God’s creation.
So both of God’s creation— blames God’s creation for their sin.
Ultimately blaming God for them disobedience.
It was in this moment that the perfect, beautiful world that God created was now corrupted and broken.
It was through one man that sin entered the world.
and we are still feeling the effects of sin entering the world to this day.
That is our status broken and sinful.
This choice made by Adam and Eve cost them everything.
It left them broken and it would seem like everything was never going to be as it use to be.
But here is the hope.
Even on the darkest day God offered hope— it comes down later as God is handed out the punishment for breaking His commandments.
And God first curses satan by saying
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”
He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.
The he is going to deliver a deathblow to Satan.
He will still be hurt in the process.
Now who is this “He”— It is Jesus.
He is the same man mentioned in Romans 5.
Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
When Adam sinned it brought death and condemnation to all people.
That is our status.
Broken and sinful.
If after the garden God said well that’s that see you later— they mess up— I’m out— there would be no hope.
I mean that is what we do with our broken stuff.
We do this in our own relationships.
We say a— thats a lot of work— hmmm it broken let’s move along.
But that is not what God did nor is it what he does.
He rolled out this rescue plan.
One man sinned and condemned everyone.
That means that one man would have to justify everyone.
But it couldn’t have been just any one.
No one was up to this challenge.
It could not be someone of the human race for the human race has this sinful natural.
This sinful nature that is part of our DNA.
It would have to be someone one who was perfect.
Who never sinned.
Someone who could take on the sins of the world.
Someone who could take on the brokenness of the human condition that left us totally separated from God.
Not the original intent but our current condition, Sinner and in need of redemption.
Hopeless needing hope.
BUT God.
The Father sent His Son Jesus— God in the flesh— to take this condition and make it right, to take this status and turn it around.
He changed the narrative— he flipped the story.
He came into the world and lived a perfect life.
And that act of obedience shows when Jesus climbed onto a wooden cross and allowed those Roman soldiers, his creation by the way, to pierce his hands and his feet.
And they hung him on a tree— and while he was on the tree he took on all the sin and brokenness in the world.
That sin you and I have— Jesus took it all on.
And it was so horrifying that The Father could not stand to look at his Son.
And as it was finished they peeled him off of the cross and laid him into a borrowed tomb.
Where he would leave three days later alive and well.
For he conquered death and sin in one swoop.
That is the price that was paid for your sin— a price that every single person owed.
Was paid for by Jesus— through his life, his death and his resurrection.
You: That is the hope that you have.
This is how we change our story.
It’s Jesus.
He has always been our hope and He will forever be our hope.
So where does this leave us today?
For starters we are no different then Adam and Eve.
Eve was tempted by a couple of ideas.
That the punishment for sin is nothing.
That is wrong.
We have been told a simple lie that you can sin and get away with it— but death is the penalty of sin.
By following ones self it will lead to destruction.
She also believed that God was hold things back from here.
You do this we think God is holding me back— you won’t die— indulge— live a little— yolo.
She believed that God did not want what was best for her.
You believe that God is keeping something from you.
You believe that you knew better.
and lastly she desired to be God or at least her own god.
You can’t become like God by defying God.
Wisdom is not gained by disobeying God.
And for many of us here we do that same thing.
We see sin as no big deal.
It cost Jesus his life it’s a big deal.
We believe that God is holding us back.
That God is a dream killer and that strict overbearing parent that wants to keep us down.
No your dreams are sinful and He trying protect you from the baggage that is going to hurt you.
We believe that if I was in charge then my life would would be better.
It won’t work that way.
You can’t be your own god.
You don’t get to call the shots.
I mean you can but it typically doesn’t work out that great does it.
How did it work for you before you knew Jesus.
I know there are three types of people here today.
The first is the one who has never given their life over to Jesus.
You may come in here today just broken.
Like maybe you keep finding yourself empty.
Like life has beat the tar out of you.
You find yourself here for whatever reason— God has brought you here to Freshwater Church.
And you come in with baggage and sin and you just feel totally empty.
You are in the right place.
You are in a room full of sinners who are in need of grace.
And here is the best news-- you can experience freedom today.
You can give your life to Jesus.
You can confess your sin and you can invite him to be Lord of your life.
And you may be thinking— Zach I have messed up so bad.
No way I can be forgiven by God.
You are wrong.
There is nothing that you have done that his Grace can’t over come.
You can’t out-sin God’s love and grace.
It is impossible.
God is crazy for you.
He loves you and wants a relationship with you.
The second type of person in this room is the one who say: I have heard this before, I have said a prayer, let’s just move on.
It would be common for us to hear this story and think— yeah its another Gospel presentation.
I’ve heard all this before.
You may have heard it but if this is your mindset— you have not allowed the Gospel to infiltrate your heart and change you.
Because every we hear this story it should fill us with hope and gratitude.
And the last person is the ones who have heard this story and this truth again for the 7th time or the 100th time— it does not diminish God’s sacrifice.
Yet we know this truth, we live out the truth but we sit on the truth.
The fact is there are millions of broken people in our world today who are desperately trying to find hope and love and purpose and we possess the answer to all three of those things yet we keep it to ourselves.
This world is crying out for hope— and we are sitting on our hands afraid that someone may not like us, or they may think we are too Christian, we will be hated for it.
If this is where you are at— and you know if this is where you are at if you have not shared the gospel with anyone lately.
Like the last week or month.
People can hate you on this side of eternity or on the other.
You have the hope that can fix their brokennesses— it’s Jesus— never be ashamed of that.
He is the one who came to saved you.
No matter where you are today know that God loves you and even in your brokenness he offers you hope.
Put your faith and trust in Him.
Will you pray with me
Pray