Genesis 3:1-19

Actions and Choices that Separate us from God

In most sports there are actions made by coaches and athletes that can result in a penalty. That penalty is a consequence of your actions, wether it be free throws in basketball or a free kick in soccer every penalty has a consequence. Every single one of them.

The same thing is true on our own lives. We make certain choices and act a certain way that is not what God wants. When we do that, we separate ourselves from God and then we experience life in a way that He meant for us to.

Genesis 3:1–19 ESV

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’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 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.’ ” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 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. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 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. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 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.” 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. 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.” To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” 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; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 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.”

Do you see what happened here?

“Did God really say?” is the question that led Eve to doubt what she knew. The Christian world uses the term sin, I know you’ve all heard it before. Sin, at the most basic level, means to miss the mark. That ‘mark’ is the standard set by God - it is how we are to love Him and love people. People are generally driven by their own desires and act in their own best interests at the expense of others. We all miss the mark - we all sin. Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

Missing the mark has consequences. Think back to our penalty example. Every penalty a team incurs costs the team something – a free shot, a possession or a player. Paul in his letter to the Roman church puts it this way regarding sin’s consequences in our lives, Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”.

Wages is what we earn. People earn death when they sin.

Jesus reinforces this idea and uses a vineyard example in the Gospel of John. John 15:6 “If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.”

The message is the same here. The consequences for not being connected to Jesus is withering and eventually, death.

That all seems pretty extreme. Can it really be that bad? Consider your own life. What fallout have you seen from choices you made without thinking about others? Any relationships strained? Any tension with your family? The consequences for our missed mark – our sin - usually appear in small ways:

hurt feelings

harsh words

irritated attitudes

But over time those small ways build into more and more. Perhaps an addiction forms which tears apart family and friends.

2. People start avoiding you because they are not sure they can trust you to do what you said you would do.

3. You miss out on playing time or a dream coaching position because your negative attitude hasn’t gone unnoticed.

Sin separates us from God. We see that with Adam and Eve in the Garden and again and again in the Bible.

When we miss the mark God set for us, which we all do, we are separated and that has eternal consequences. When a basketball player gets his or her fifth foul they have to sit down. They don’t get another chance to do better. The same is true for us. At the end of our lives, if we have not connected to God, we don’t get another chance.

It is PROVEN that being disconnected and living in disobedience from God has consequences, not just now but for eternity.

Reflection Questions

Describe a time when you were penalized in a game.

How have you seen the consequences of sin in your life?

What is one thing you can take away from this study?