What happens when humans seize autonomy from God? (wk 2)

Good morning, CHURCH!

Welcome to FFM where we love God and love people.

Are you ready to be equipped today?

Let me see your Bibles.

Pray

Lord, help us to see you as new and fresh through your word today?

Lord, help us to see truth where we have believed lies?

Lord, let us not get puffed up in pride and arrogance with the knowledge you give us.

Most of all, help us to love you and others more.

Let’s go to the book of Galatians 6:7-8 NIV for this week’s wisdom Vaccination.

This Week’s Wisdom Vaccination

Galatians 6:7-8 NIV

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

I realized that most people either don’t know what the Bible says, don’t care enough about eternal life or have just flat out been deceived.

Because I don’t find any teachings in scripture that say just because you pray with someone and go to church occasionally even when you don’t follow God you’ll be saved from eternal damnation.

The scriptures teach the opposite.

If you live your life sowing to your flesh you will reap corruption.

And if you live your life sowing to the spirit you will reap from the spirit eternal life.

I know preachers don’t like to teach these parts of the scriptures because they don’t excite people.

But God warns us with scripture like this because He loves us and wants to redirect us from sin.

Sowing to the flesh or the Spirit is like two sides of a coin.

One side brings you the consequence of corruption while the other side brings you the consequence of eternal life with the God.

As I said last week, it’s your choice and your consequence.

The Apostle Paul gave us a little more insight into this passage earlier in chapter 5.

Galatians 5:13–15 ESV

“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.”

Do you know what this tells me?

It tells me that serving one another is one of the most spiritual things we can do.

Let’s get into today’s message.

We are continuing the series titled:

What happens when humans seize autonomy from God?

God was supposed to govern our lives.

It is a sinful choice to choose to govern your own life.

Remember the rules to life as a human on earth.

Rule #1-God created humans.

Rule #2-God defines good.

Rule #3-Our job is to subdue and rule the earth by doing good.

Rule #4-The good we do should always be a benefit to others.

Rule #5-If you try to operate any other way, you’re out of order.

Today’s message title is:

The Aftermath

We’re going to look at the aftermath of the human’s choice to disobey God and govern life on their own.

Some of you will be able to immediately point to sometimes in your life where your disobedience has led to some unfortunate consequences.

But some of you have trained yourself to see your life through the eyes of society.

And you think that your disobedience to God has not done damage to your life.

It’s kind of like when I was young and flying through the air on the basketball courts.

I didn’t think the way I was eating was a problem because I couldn’t see the effects of it at that time.

But later on it caught up to me.

Disobedience to God is even worse because it damages us and others around us that are closely connected to us.

People need to wake up!

Point #1

The Awakening.

Genesis 3:6-7 NIV

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so, they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

The word then at the start of verse seven signals that the aftermath of their choice was about to be revealed.

As we look at the choice and consequences of Adam and Eve, don’t just see yourself if you’re female as connected to Eve’s choice.

Or if you are male, don’t only see yourself connected to Adam’s choice.

Because if we look a little closer into both choices, we may see ourselves in both of them at different times in our lives.

What we see here is that Eve chose to act individualistic, verses in unity with her husband.

And if you’re not married you do the same thing when you choose to act in disobedience to God without checking with an accountability partner.

Before partaking of the forbidden fruit, Eve had every opportunity to discuss it with her husband.

But it was only after she acted on her own and in her personal best interest, that she then invited Adam to join in on her choice.

Question?

When have you made decisions or choices in your best interest without first running it by someone you were accountable to?

And I’m talking about disobedient to God decisions.

How about those of you who are married?

Did you run that disobedient decision by your spouse?

Or did you act on your own for what you thought was a benefit to you at the time?

Or maybe some of you can identify with Adam.

He was with his wife but remained silent and passive throughout her exchanges with the serpent.

The Bible doesn’t’ tell us that he tried to steer her away from the conversation with the serpent as she was led into deception.

Adam was simply a follower into sin.

Adam placed a higher priority on his relationship with his wife than on his relationship with his creator.

And because Adam followed her choice, instead of being united in their relationship with God, they united into a relationship of disobedience and sin.

What type of relationship are you uniting in with the people you associate with?

Point #2

Making decisions on our own.

This fallout of knowing good and evil and making grown-up decisions goes deeper.

Verse :7 shows us that shame entered both Adam and Eve.

All of a sudden, they knew that they were naked.

(The ignorance of innocence was gone.)

And they sewed fig leaves together to cover their bodies.

(Shame has entered.)

Shame is that feeling of embarrassment or humiliation that arises from the perception of having done something dishonorable, immoral, or improper.

Genesis 3:8 NIV

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Shame caused them to try and hide from God.

But God didn’t and doesn’t disappear from us when we sin.

He is there for us to repent and turn back towards him.

Don’t raise your hands but how many times have you run from God when you felt shame?

-I haven’t been reading my Bible.

-I haven’t been praying like I should.

-I went some place that I know God wouldn’t have wanted me too.

-I put something in my body that I know I shouldn’t have.

-I laid with someone that wasn’t my husband or wife.

We could go on and on and eventually we’d walk down your street.

But when we’ve allowed shame to cause us to back away from God, we’ve just played into the hands of the enemy.

And if you’re listening to me right now and you are hiding from God, he is calling out to you.

Just like he did in verse :9.

Genesis 3:9 NIV

But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”

“Where are you?”

The fallout didn’t just stop with the guilty party.

Check out their children.

Genesis 4:3-5 NIV

In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. 4 And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So, Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

Jealousy and envy are also a result of humans seizing autonomy from God.

Genesis 4:6-7 NIV

6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”

Question?

How do you rule over the sin that is trying to keep you from following God?

One thing I know is that the more you feed the flesh the more it craves.

Sin is like that food or sweet snack that is not good for you.

The more you eat it, the more you crave it.

The more you look at the commercial about your sin, the more you crave it.

The more you see others partaking of it on social media, the more you crave it.

The more you listen to songs about it, the more you crave it.

The more junk food you eat, the less healthy food you want.

And the more fleshly, carnal stuff you partake of, the less spiritual stuff you crave.

Point #3

Evil produces more of the same.

It’s not enough that you don’t allow God to lead you in what is good for your life, but it gets worse and worse as generations continue.

Literally four generations later, they had gotten so far away from God’s design for humans.

Genesis 4:19 NIV

Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah.

Not only was violence a part of society but Lamech was introducing womanizing.

Lamech was Adam’s great, great, great, great, grandson.

Now you have a descendent of Adam and of Cain that is bragging in a poem he came up with about how he murdered someone who had injured him and calling himself ten times more avenged than Cain.

Scholars believe that because one of his sons was skilled in making tools that he used these as weapons and thought of himself as invincible.

Question?

What are some things that society has taken on as normal that you have adopted for yourself?

God is walking in the midst of the garden calling your name.

“Where are you?”

Please for the sake of your eternal spirit and those that you influence, run back to God and allow him to govern your life.

If you’re watching online or here in the building, I have a very important question to ask you.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you right now?