Sermon Tone Analysis

Welcome

Good morning once again.

We are continuing in our series that is looking at the Gospel Story throughout the Bible.

Just as a reminder, we are going through the Bible in one year, looking at how everything in scripture is a unified story that points us to Jesus as the savior and messiah.

Last week Dan preached and you heard how God created the world and everything else and how it was all “very good.”

Today, we are going to get to the not so great part, and see why we live in a world that has pain and heartache.

Prayer

Engage / Tension

If you have every been to our house, you know that we have a bathroom that is right off of the kitchen.

It’s just a small bathroom with a toilet and sink, but there is another door in it that leads to a pantry.

Amy and I had talked about getting a new vanity for the bathroom because it was a pretty old one and this last summer we decided to do just that on a random night.

We were at Home Depot and they had vanities on sale and they looked good so we snagged one and brought it home.

We had a delay in installing it because when I took the old one out I found a water leak that had to be fixed and so fast forward a few weeks later.

The water leak was fixed and I had some time one Saturday to install it.

I got the holes cut out of the back of it and everything ready to go, Amy helped me carry it in, and we realized something rather quickly.

We could not open the pantry door.

In my wisdom I didn’t measure anything that night at Home Depot.

I went based off of what I thought “looked” right and just got the vanity.

To solve this issue, I did the only rationale thing.

I liked the vanity, it looked good.

The box was destroyed, I had the holes cut in it already, I can’t take it back.

And I had a brilliant idea.

So I popped the pantry door off the hinges, carried it out to the garage, and cut out a notch in it with my table saw!

And just like that, the door would open again.

I bring that up, because it’s a story that illustrates how there are consequences to the decisions we make.

I made a very conscious decision at Home Depot that I didn’t need to measure, I could just eye ball it.

That was not the case.

We all know that our decisions have consequences, but yet how many times do we neglect to think about them?

We often think of Adam and Eve and how they make their decision to disobey God and think, “How stupid were they?

Why did they do that?”

But yet, we all fall into the same category in our lives.

We decide to do something, something that we know is wrong, something that we shouldn’t do, but yet we do it anyway.

And like my bathroom vanity, we have to then deal with the consequences.

But how do we deal with the consequences from when Adam and Eve messed up?

That is what I hope we can hear today in scripture.

The Bad Decision

Here we are introduced to a new character in the Gospel Story, the serpent.

The serpent here is described as being crafty, but think of crafty in the negative sense.

There is a good kind of crafty that is positive, Proverbs describes that kind of crafty as being prudent.

But here it is used in the negative sense.

The serpent is deceitful, that is the kind of crafty that he is.

But this serpent is different from any of the other animals.

This serpent begins to speak to Eve.

Now, that should make us wonder what the deal is with the serpent.

It should inform us that the snake is being used here by someone else.

Later scripture supports the view that behind the serpent is Satan himself, who is looking to bring about the fall for Adam and Eve.

Revelation refers to Satan as the ancient serpent and we are told that Satan is the father of lies.

So Satan is working through this animal to deceive Adam and Eve even though Adam and Eve should have control over the animals.

But the craftiness of the serpent can be seen in how he questions Eve.

He begins by asking, “Did God really say you couldn’t eat from any tree?”

The question that is asked is not at all true, but it creates doubts within Eve.

I like how one author puts it, when he says this. “The question emphasizes God’s prohibition and overlooks the abundant provision of trees that God had given to Adam and Eve.”

The tactic that Satan is using is trickery, did God really limit what you could eat?

Eve responds by saying that they can eat from other trees in the garden, but that they couldn’t eat the fruit OR touch the fruit from the middle of the garden.

Notice here how Eve adds something to God’s command.

God simply said don’t eat it, but Eve says that they can’t touch it.

While it might seem small, it shows us how we as humans often handle the word of God.

God didn’t say that, but yet she believed it.

Our beliefs need to line up with what God has instructed, not simply what we think.

But the serpent reassures Eve, you won’t die from it, in fact, once you eat it you will be like God and know good and evil.

Really, what the serpent is proposing to Eve is that her and Adam could have the same knowledge as God.

It raises the question of if God really is the source of all knowledge.

So Eve looks again at the fruit, it looks good, added bonus of gaining wisdom by eating it, so she takes it and eats it and then gives some to Adam.

At once they realize something has changed.

They realize that they are naked and make some clothes for themselves.

So here we have the decision.

Adam and Eve decided to go against God’s commands, they went with what they thought was the better decision, they thought they could maybe even be better than God by gaining the wisdom that the fruit offered.

And as we continue on, we see the consequences of their decision.

The Consequences

God walks through the garden and begins looking for Adam and Eve.

Even going so far as to actually call for them.

“Where are you?”

In this interaction we are going to see how God deals with their disobedience, but throughout this passage we can see time and time again how God was merciful and loving to them.

God knew where they were, he knew what had happened, but he comes to them and gives them a chance to approach him.

God even gives Adam a chance to explain what happened and the first thing that Adam does shows one of the consequences of sin.

It’s not Adam’s fault, in fact it is kind of God’s fault!

That woman that YOU put here with me, she is the one who gave the fruit to me.

I think most of the time we read this passage and think that Adam is throwing Eve under the bus, but in reality he is telling God is is primarily his fault.

You put her here with me, you made her, and look at what she has done as a result of you making her and placing her in the garden.

When God questions Eve she then does the same thing Adam did.

She blames the serpent for deceiving her.

Sin has a nasty habit of making us want to play the blame game.

When we mess up, when we do something we know we shouldn’t have, we often result to the blame game just like Adam and Eve.

“I only did it because they told me to!

I only said that because you did this or that to me!” Our first response to sin is often try to get out of it, blame it on someone else.

While it doesn’t necessarily help us, I often wonder what this passage would be like if instead of hiding from God and blaming each other for what had happened, what if Adam and Eve ran to God? What if they approached him and admitted what had happened?

Yes, there would still be some kind of consequence, but how would that play out?

Just a random little bit that I find interesting.

But God then gets into the consequences to their decision.

First, he curses the serpent for what he has done and says that there will be enmity between the the woman and the serpent.

And even though the serpent will strike the heel of Eve’s offspring, he will crush the serpent’s head.

(We are going to come back to this)

Then we have the list of consequences for Adam and Eve.

Childbearing is now going to be painful and the relationship between man and women is fractured, it will be different from what they have experienced up to this point because of their sin.

The ground will no longer just provide food for them.

Instead they will have to work the ground, fight weeds and thorns in order to get food.

And finally, they will return to the ground.

Just as God created Adam from the dust, so they will eventually return to be dust when they die.

These are quite the consequences to their decision.

And while we once again might be tempted to say, “Oh geeze, thanks you guys.”