Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning Church!

Welcome

Mention YEC (March 3-4) and Summer Camp (June 26-30)

Have you ever been tempted?

I think it’s easy to admit that we have all been tempted.

I know that I can be tempted by a nice big bowl of ice cream or a warm piece of apple pie!

But we are also tempted by more serious things in our lives.

The Bible is full of verses about temptation.

We are not promised a life of ease and no temptations - but we are promised to have the power to overcome temptation by the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of us.

Today, we are going to discuss temptation, the results of temptation, and how we can overcome.

Let us pray.

Temptation can be subtle (Verses 1-7)

Verse 1 says that the serpent was cunning or some translations may say subtle.

The serpent makes it clear really fast that he is an enemy of God saying,

He is subtly trying to cast doubt upon God’s goodness and direction by implying that the Lord is being too strict.

Instead of turning away, Eve responds back to the serpent.

If she had realized that the serpent was an enemy of hers - do you think she would have responded and had a conversation with him?

No.

At this point, Eve isn’t aware that the serpent is an enemy because the serpent was cunning and subtle.

Eve has now opened the door for temptation and sin to enter her life and ultimately all of our lives.

In the next verse, Satan directly denies God’s word in an attempt to continue to persuade and tempt Eve...

Eve must now choose - is she going to believe in her Creator and Lord, or is she going to believe in Satan the serpent?

There is no half way - she will choose one or the other.

We cannot play middle man, there is no grey area…it’s either right or wrong, it’s either Jesus or Sin! WE must choose just like Eve did in the garden.

Satan is condemning the idea of absolute authority.

In verse 5, he questions God’s motives and makes Eve doubt the motives of God.

Satan implies that Eve is confined by her position of trusting God.

He is trying to make it clear to Eve that God is not good, but instead is jealous.

The serpent indicates that the path to knowledge is to bypass God’s word.

Satan lead with being subtle and not obvious about his true intentions, then after he got her attention - he made her doubt God and think that the “sin” wasn’t bad but actually good.

Our world is doing that same thing today - thinking that sin is actually good and that good is actually bad.

Or that it’s no big deal - it’s just a little white lie right?

It wont hurt anybody or anything...

Now, look at verse 6 with me

Her actions here in verse 6 on the surface don’t look bad do they?

It looks like she was just eating some delightful food…what is the harm in that?

There are lots of things we can learn about sin from just this verse.

What can we learn about sin from Verse 6?

The pathway to sin can begin with sight

Sin can cause us to desire something that is not for us.

The sight of sin itself is not a sin, but it can be the pathway that leads us to sin.

This is why we need to pay attention to what we see and look upon.

An innocent sight of something can quickly turn into a lustful desire.

Here Eve saw something that looked beautiful then that sight turned into lust when she wanted something that was not intended for her…in fact, it was forbidden.

What can we learn about sin from Verse 6?

3. Lusting can lead to indulgence

4. Sin often leads us to include others in our sin.

The sin deepened when Eve acted on her lust and desire by taking the fruit and eating it.

Sin can quickly continue to grow when we least expect it.

Think of how fast she went from totally sinless to sinning…it can happen very quickly.

Not only did she indulge in her sin, she continued to deepen the sin by offering it to her husband.

Has this ever happened to you? I’ll give you an example.

We were watching TV and it was a family friendly movie so you would think that you’re ok.

But then the commercial came on and it was not a family friendly commercial at all.

It seems like commercials become more and more ungodly every day.

But that just shows how quickly our eyes can go from something innocent, to something potentially sinful in just a second.

OR, have you been in a conversation with a close friend.

Maybe you two are discussing what has been going on in your lives when suddenly the conversation turns to a complain session about somebody else and how you both just can’t stand that person, or maybe the conversation quickly turns to a gossip session.

The point is - sin can happen in the blink of an eye when we don’t have our eyes focused on our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Responses to sin (Vs 8-13)

Now that we have discussed how easy it is to be tempted, what does the Bible say in these verses about the consequences of our sins?

1. Sin tells me to run away from God

Just think about how silly this is in a way - can you hide from God? NO

We might be able to hide our sins from our family, our friends, or our fellow church members - but WE CANNOT hide our sin from the Lord God almighty.

But God loves us and actually instead of hiding, he wants us to run back to him.

He knows we are going to sin - instead of automatically condemning us God shows us love and mercy by wanting us to turn back to Him and repent of our wrongdoing.

Sin tells us to run away from God - but God wants us to run to him.

This is true in our personal lives.

There have been times when our children have done wrong.

In times where we know what they did but they aren’t aware of that yet - we will tell them to simply tell the truth and that the punishment will be worse if they lie to us about it.

Our nature is to run away and hide or lie about it…but our heavenly Father is so good and faithful that we can have peace of mind and can find comfort that only He can give if we will simply turn to Him and confess/repent.

2. Sin leads to guilt

When their eyes were opened here in the text, it wasn’t a physical opening of the eyes but instead an opening of their conscience.

They now see from a perverted position.

When they realized what they had done - they felt guilt.

We too feel guilt after we have done wrong.

We often times try to hide that guilt.

Unfortunately, sometimes we let that guilt build up inside as we hold onto it for way too long.

But God wants to free us from that guilt.

Only God through Christ Jesus can set us free.

3. Sin wants me to blame somebody else (9-13)

Here Adam is not straightforward and open.

Sin makes man a coward and an evader; it leads us to seek refuge in half-truths, deceit, and evasion.

What Adam says is partly true - but he is more concerned with the consequences of his sin than with the heinousness of what he had done.

The awareness of his nakedness was more on his mind than the fact that he had broken God’s command.

Sin causes us to think more of what happens and will happen to us rather than the fact that we have disobeyed God.

And now for the blame game!

God gave him an opportunity to be honest.

But instead, not only does Adam try to shift the blame to Eve but even on to God! Can anybody say, Whoa! That’s pretty daring to blame God…the Bible is clear that God is not in the temptation business.

Adam was basically saying in his answer...”well, of coarse I ate of the tree…the woman YOU gave me caused me to eat.

So how did Eve respond?

Here too…God knew the answer.

Eve also had the opportunity to be honest but instead, decided to play the blame game and blamed the serpent.

Unfortunately - blaming somebody else is often easy…but it’s not right.

We are responsible for our own actions…period.

I’m sure a lot of people can relate to this if you’ve been around children very long.

Often times, I’ll hear a child complaining or arguing with their sibling.

Once we get involved to settle the problem…the response is often, “but he or she made me!”

This is true for children but it’s also true for adults today.

Are we not also guilty of blaming others for our own decisions, mistakes, and sins?