The Fracturing of Community back up copy
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
first point, or section
first point, or section
As Rick pointed out in the previous two weeks, we have picked the theme of church community for our Sermon series. Starting out in Geneses, Rick has walked us through the first two chapters to show us the Creation narrative, and and God’s very creation gives us a glimpse into His desire for us to be in community, as well as a glimpse into the character of the God who created us for this community.
In the chapters Rick taught us, we saw God, speaking in the plural tense, showing His Trinitarian nature, creating the universe in an orderly manner, followed by Him resting, a great example for us.
We then went into more depth last week into the sixth day. In chapter two, we see God giving Adam work to do, naming all of the animals, and we are introduced to the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam is told in Genesis 2:16-17
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,
17 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.”
I am going to repeat this, and I want you to read along and listen, paying attention to the wording and phrasing used.
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,
17 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.”
Sometime after this, God realized that Adam had no helper fit for him, and therefore created woman to be his companion, helper, Wife.
The chapter ends with
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
We see here the original plan for creation.
There was husband and wife, who had work to do, and who did this work together in harmony, without shame, and without strife.
This brings us to chapter 3, where we see this perfect community, broken and fractured.
You see, the enemy, Satan, hates the things of God. Throughout scripture we see Him attacking the plans of God. We see Him attacking the community of God. We see Him tempting the pinnacle of His creation because He is against the righteousness of God.
That is true now and it was true in the Garden. Let’s see this starting in verse 1.
The tempter of sin
The tempter of sin
Genesis 3:1 (ESV)
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made……..
The Hebrew word here means Serpent or snake, but the wording, grammar, and attributes attributed to it signal to the reader that this is no mere animal.
The New Testament even references the Serpent to being Satan in Rev 20:9
Revelation 20:2 (ESV)
2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,
So the Serpent, who is Satan in the form of an animal said to Eve…
Genesis 3:1 (ESV)
1 ………“Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
What’s Satan doing here? He’s asking questions designed to sow doubt into Eve.
For those who know me well, you know I love asking questions, and I love answering questions. I have stood up here and even encouraged you to ask the hard questions. We find truth by asking the hard questions and seeking the answers.
But we have to be careful how we go about this. Asking questions wanting to find truth is one thing, but asking questions to doubt the words of God is a very different and dangerous act.
Even the wording of Satan’s question is manipulative. Do you remember the wording of Genesis 2:16-17?
Let someone say it if they remember it.
Let’s look at it and the second half of 3:1 side by side.
On screen
Where God highlights the wonders He has given them to eat and enjoy, Satan focuses on what she can not have.
I say this to tell you that the enemy’s tactics have not changed much over the years. It is still an attack he uses today, and if we are not careful Hutong Church, we will fall for this temptation.
One example of this is that God has given us the gift of intimacy to be enjoyed within the safety and beauty of marriage, but too often, even Christians begin to look beyond that to what He has forbidden. Whether it's pornography, adultery, or any sexual pursuit outside of marriage, we must not chase after a counterfeit, ignoring the deep connection and joy that come from honoring God's design for marriage.
Another example is how God promises to provide for all our needs, yet we are often tempted to chase after more in sinful ways. We may do this by lying on our taxes, being dishonest in business, or choosing to over drink at a business meeting to close an important deal. We should Instead Trust Him and enjoy the provision He has already given.
Or think of how God calls us to humble service and to find joy in where He’s placed us. But how often do we desire more power, recognition, or influence? We manipulate situations or exploit others to climb higher, when the greater blessing is being faithful in the role He’s given us.
We must see what God has given us as a blessing, but we must also see what He has witheld from us as a blessing as well.
Continuing our story, Eve replies to the Serpent in verse two by explaining how they may eat of any trees in teh garden, but not the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden.
That leads us to verse four.
4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Here we see Satan continuing to deceive Eve, giving her half truths so that she begins to lose trust in the one who created her.
He questions the motives of God.
He paints God as a God who is only trying to protect His power by keeping Adam and Eve in ignorance.
Again, Satan has not changed his tactics.
We see John 8:44
44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Jesus says this after the Pharisees and others in the crowd are refusing to accept the simple commands of God and are instead trusting in their heritage as Children of Abraham.
Jesus connects their teachings to that of Satan. He says that He does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in Him. His very character is lies because he is the father of lies.
So what lies is Satan telling you today?
In what areas is He convincing you that to disobey God is not a big deal?
You might think, “God wants me to be happy, so this sin must be fine.” There’s a half-truth in that—God does care about your joy. But true joy comes from obedience, not from sin.
Satan also whispers, “It’s just a small sin, it doesn’t really matter.” But every sin separates us from God.
Another dangerous lie is, “God is forgiving, so I can go ahead and do this now—He’ll forgive me later.” Yes, God is forgiving, but His grace is not a free pass to sin.
Did Eve see through the lies of the Serpent?
Did she say get behind me Satan?
Did she Flee from the temptation?
Did her husband see what was going on and run to keep her from sinning against God?
Sadly, no.
After being told half truths,
After allowing herself to listen to lies about the very character of God,
she began to see the forbidden fruit
not as a danger,
not as the rule she joyfully follows, trusting in the goodness of the rule giver,
but rather as something that looks good,
something that is a delight,
and something to be desired.
That leads us to a great practical question.
Are there sins in our lives that instead of seeing them as good and righteous prohibitions for our benefit, we have begun to see as desirable.
We maybe resist, knowing it is a rule, but when we work hard at our resistance, our mind is not on the joy of obedience, but rather the delight that this sin could bring us.
Resisting sin is not going to work if we are looking at the sins as desirable actions that we just have to resist because God said so.
Yes, we must resist, and yes God said so, but our motivation is found in the joy of our obedience to a Holy and righteous God, who’s Glory is magnified in our obedience.
Eve failed because she started to doubt God and began to focus on the apple.
Peter failed when He started to focus on the wind and waves around him instead of focusing on Jesus.
We fail when we focus more on our willpower of not doing what we really want to do instead of focusing on bringing Glory to God through our obedience.
We fail when choose to focus on the enjoyment we are not having in sin instead of the joy we could be having in God’s glory being the focus of everything we do.
We will succeed in our obedience when we daily trust God, spend time with God in order to know God, and flee from even the thoughts of sin.
Don’t be in the presence of evil.
If you find yourself thinking about how desirable or enjoyable it would be to commit a sin, you are already in a dangerous place of temptation. Cease these thoughts. Cry out to God, and find someone to hold you accountable. Fill your mind with the greatness of God and not the false greatness of the sin.
But sadly, we know that’s not what happened in our story.
Eve ate, and she gave the fruit to her husband, who also ate.
This leads us to our second point, The Seriousness of Sin.
The seriousness of sin.
The seriousness of sin.
We spent two weeks talking about god’s perfect creation in the Garden, and how God planned for us to live in perfect Harmony with each other and with Him.
From the very beginning, we see God’s vision for community.
We are to multiply and fill the earth.
We are to work, and keep the earth.
The wife was
7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
8 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.
9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
At the moment of their sin, they for the first time felt shame.
We do not know how long they lived in the garden before this event, but up until now, they were in a state of innocence.
Their sin was a broken covenant withGod, introducing fear and shame, that led to an inadequate attempt to cover themselves with fig leaves.
This covering however was not able to cover their shame, so they hid from God, no longer being able to be in His presence.
That is what sin does Hutong church.
That is the seriousness of sin.
Our sin has broken our relationship with the creator.
Where once mankind walked in the garden in perfect community with not only each other, but with God, it now walks in shame.
A) Sin has corrupted our relationship with nature, and our ability to work it.
A) Sin has corrupted our relationship with nature, and our ability to work it.
I really enjoyed small group on Tuesday, because we had such great conversations on Genesis chapter 2.
One of the things we discussed was how God had work in mind for Adam before he even created Him.
The text actually says that there was no one to work and keep the garden, and God put Adam into the Garden to do just that.
This relationship between humans and nature, and the need to work and sustain nature to live off it was always part of God’s plan.
We see this in both chapters 1 and 2, but let’s look at Chapter 1 verse 28
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
We see two commands here by God, to have kids to fill the earth, and to subdue and have dominion over the earth.
When we look at God’s judgments on Adam and Eve, we see them mirroring these commands.
We will see this starting in verse 17.
Genesis 3:16 (ESV)
17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
As Rick spoke on last week, the command to work the earth and subdue it has not gone away, but it has become far harder.
Work is now hard.
Nature no longer makes it easy on us.
I don’t know how many of you grew up gardening, or with family who gardens, but I can tell you that growing food is not easy.
Thorns, weeds, bugs, and disease often choke out and kill what you try to grow.
This was not always the case.
This is a result of sin.
I know today, most of us no longer make a living farming.
But does this not ring true even in our jobs?
Work is not always easy.
Work is not always fun.
But it was not always this way.
It was not the original plan in the garden.
B. Sin has corrupted our relationship in the family.
B. Sin has corrupted our relationship in the family.
Not only has our relationship with nature and work been fractured, but so has our relationship with each other.
Let’s look at our verse in chapter 1 again.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Adam and Eve were blessed by God, and told to fill the earth with more people, made in the image of God.
With that in mind, let’s look at the judgment given in verse 16.
16 To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”
First, we will look at the part that only effects women.
God tells Eve that giving birth is now going to be painful.
The relationship with one’s own offspring is going to become harder, even before you lay eyes on them.
And although it is not mentioned in our text here, we know that our children are also born into sin, which means our relationship with them is also fractured.
Although I can not speak to this from personal experience, I am sure the parents in the room can say Amen to the fact that parenting is not easy, in large part to the sin of both the parents and the child, and the effects these sins have on the family.
Sin not only effects child bearing and parenting, but it also effects the relationship between husband and wife.
God is saying that there will no longer be perfect, sinless, shameless harmony between husband and wife. There will now be strife. The wife is not going to always be in agreement with the husband.
