Foundations: Week 2 - Jesus Was in the Garden Too

From Brokenness to Restoration: God's Promise after the Fall

Bible Passage: Ge 3:1–24

Summary: Genesis 3 describes the fall of Adam and Eve, showing how sin entered the world and its devastating consequences, but also hints at God’s promise of restoration.

Application: This sermon can help teens understand the impact of sin in their lives while also offering hope that God’s grace can restore what has been broken. It encourages them to seek restoration and to trust in God’s plan for redemption.

Teaching: The sermon teaches that while sin has serious consequences, God’s promise of restoration through Christ provides hope and a path forward. It emphasizes the importance of recognizing our brokenness and the need for God's healing.

How this passage could point to Christ: In the context of the Bible, this passage foreshadows the need for a Savior. Jesus triumphs over sin and restores our relationship with God, fulfilling the promise made in Genesis 3:15—the first indication of God's redemptive plan through Christ.

Big Idea: Even in the depths of our brokenness due to sin, God's promise of restoration through Christ remains our source of hope and healing.

Recommended Study: As you prepare your sermon, consider using your Logos library to delve into the exegetical aspects of Genesis 3. Look for commentaries that address the implications of the fall and God’s promise, specifically examining the Hebrew words and their connotations. Additionally, exploring biblical covenants related to restoration might provide deeper insights into God’s ongoing plan as revealed throughout Scripture.

ICEBREAKER

How is everyone doing?

We are continuing in our series Foundations. Last week we talked about how God created everything in just 6 days, then he rested on the seventh. But even more than that we talked about how everything He made was perfect, but sadly it did not stay that way.

If you guys don’t know it but I’m a huge nerd and I absolutely love going to the movie. But you guys know what makes a great movie? It ends up following this general flow: You get to meet the characters and normally everything is going great, then we hit the part of the movie where something goes wrong and the characters have to come together and work the problem and save the day, finally everything goes back to normal and everyone is happy again, but not without a couple lumps and scars.

But see that is exactly what is happening right here in Genesis, God made the world perfect and everything was going smoothly, sadly it did not stay that way.

MAIN MESSAGE

1. Deception: The Door to Brokenness

Ge 3:1-7

Who here has broken something before? Take a moment and tell someone around you a story of a time where you broke something.

Tell how I dropped my iPhone at LU and it shattered.

Just as we have all broken something before, don’t worry it won’t be the last time either, but we are going to go back to the first thing that did get broken and how it got that way. We will start in Genesis 3:1-7

Genesis 3:1–7 ESV

1 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’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 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.’ ” 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.” 6 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. 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.

The first thing to ever be broken was God’s perfect world, done by His own creation, us. But it was not like just dropping you phone, see this brokenness started with just a simple question, “Did God actually say…” See satan was trying to trick and deceive us to get us to make a mistake and Adam and Eve took the bate hook, line and sinker. If your taking notes I want you to jot this down - Deception: The Door to Brokenness.

Satan likes to try and trick us with different types of deceptions:

Did God really say…

Its not really that bad

Everyone is doing it

Its not going to hurt you

If I do this people with like me

Some of these might seem familiar to you, you might even have used one of them before, but it is these very types of deceptions that satan likes to use to have you turn you back on God leading to sin in your life.

2. Distance: Sin's Relational Rift

Ge 3:8-13

But see Adam and Eve couldn’t even grasp what the results of their sin and what was to happen next. Let’s continue in Gen 3:8-13

Genesis 3:8–13 ESV

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.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 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.”

While they might have thought that the worst was that they saw shame between each other a more proment consiqunece of their sin was much greater, it was distance from God. See the second point that I want you to take note of is this: Distance: Sin’s Relational Rift.

Honestly this distance from God is something that is much harder for us to grasp as it would have been for Adam and Eve. See it is because of Adam and Eve that we already have distance from God, because for them they would literally walk with God in the garden, they were in perfect community with God, the only time that we will have that again is in Heaven. So while we might not be able to fully grasp the true distance that sin can cause between us and God, there is also distance that is caused between those around you.

Look just at Adam and Eve, they started with no shame between each other and just a little bit later they are blaming everyone, but themselves for their own mistakes. Sin in our lives and can division betwen those around us because of the shame it can bring, even the anger. Look at the world today, look at the wars, the violence, these are all a result of sin and honestly that can be really depressing.

3. Despair Meets Hope: God’s Promise of Restoration

Ge 3:14-15,20

But the Good News is that it does not have to stay that way, lets continue in Gen 3:14-15

Genesis 3:14–15 ESV

14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 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.”

While Adam and Eve were defently feeling despair, God did not leave it there. The last point I want you to jot down tonight is this: Despair Meets Hope: God’s Promise for Restoration.

God takes what was a dark day for Adam and Eve and gave them a promise of hope that one day they would be able to walk with God again, like they once did. God even showed them exactly how he would do it too. Look at what he does in Gen 3:21

Genesis 3:21 NLT

21 And the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife.

In how God sacrificed an animal to clothe Adam and Eve, God ended up doing the exact same thing for each and everyone of us when He sent his son to die for our sins, by covering them with his blood. So while sin and can cause us to not only be separated from each other, but God as well it is Good News for Him sending His Son, as John puts it in John 3:16-17

John 3:16–17 NLT

16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

APPLICATION

So what does this mean for you here tonight? First off this is something that should encourage you and help bring you peace, but I know even for myself that sometimes it can be hard to believe this truth when there are so many lies that are all around you. So there is something that I want to challenge you guys to do this week: Write Down Your Wins.

Now when I’m talking about wins, I don’t mean that your team won the big game, but I am talking about the times in your life where you have seen God move. This is something that at the beginning of every week the staff of REVO come together and do. They look back to the past week and share all the wins where they have seen God move so they can praise God for that. In that same way I want to to make a note when you see God moving in your life and write it down either in a notebook, on your phone, or even on a stikey note on your mirror. This is so it is something that you can see each day.

This way that when you hear a lie about you, you can turn to your wins and see how God is moving in your life and that way you don’t have to believe the lie.

But that’s not the only thing I want to challenge you to do, but this is something I want to challange you to do tonight in your small groups: Write Down HIS Truth.

So many times in our lives we like to hold and believe our own truths, look at what happened to Adam and Eve, they believed the truth that the fruit looked good and would make them like God, yet they forgot the truth that God had said that they could eat everything but. We could speculate what would have happened if they followed God’s truth in that situation, but the reality is they forgot it. This is why I want you tonight to write down different truths that God has about you. That way when the lies try to creep in about who you are you can look to the list you made about the truths that God says that you are.

Let’s Pray

QUESTIONS

Ice Breaker: If you could instantly master any skill, what would it be and why?

What do you think was going through Eve's and Adam’s minds as they decided to eat the fruit?

2. What promise does God give in Genesis 3:15, and how do we see Jesus in that?

3. How did sin change the relationship between Adam, Eve, and God?

4. Have you ever done something wrong and tried to hide it? How did that feel?

5. Can you think of a time when sin created distance in one of your relationships (with God or others)? What happened?

6. In what situations do you find it hardest to trust God’s plan for your life? Why do you think that is?

7. What’s a lie you’ve believed about yourself, and what truth from God’s Word speaks against it?

8. How can writing down “God wins” or “truths” help you fight back against those lies?

9. What are some truths that God says about you in the Bible that speak to you? (You the list provided to help give the students some ideas of different verses)

10. How can you support a friend who is struggling with shame or brokenness?

11. How could sharing your own “God wins” or restoration stories encourage someone else this week?