From the Garden to Gehenna

Build Connection

Have you ever been in so much debt there was no way out and your debt just kept getting deeper?

When I was in college, I was introduced to credit via a credit card. I was so happy to have a way to buy what I wanted with having to save for it.

What I quickly found out is that it wasn’t as wonderful as I first believed.

I was able to make the minimum monthly payment but it would take over 3 years to pay it off and would cost me over double what I borrowed.

Create Tension

As bad as that is, it is nothing compared to an even bigger debt we all have. This debt is so bad that the interest on this debt is more than the payment we could make. So this debt compounds faster than we can pay it. Each and every day we go deeper and deeper into debt.

Understanding this, we are all hopeless, but there is a solution, nothing we can do, but something that has been done for us!

What is this debt, that’s what I want to talk to you about today.

Provide Solution

We are in a series called “Anchored” and we are looking at what we believe, our core beliefs, our core values.

We have already looked at God’s Word, the Bible, being our Anchor the keeps us unmoved by the whirlwind of this life.

We are tied to this anchor by links, and those links are beliefs that come from God’s word.

The first week we saw how God’s Word is inerrant and infallible.

Then we discussed the Trinity and how we believe there is one God, identified in three persons.

After that we saw how the Scriptures say Jesus was both fully God and fully man.

Last week was looked at the Holy Spirit and how he is with us all the time to be our advocate.

Today I want to look how humanity

was built for the Garden, but we worked our way to Gehenna

We were built for paradise but ended up in punishment

We were built for fellowship but chose animosity

We were built for eternal hope but traded it for temporary happiness

How did we get here? It starts with, “In the beginning…”

In Genesis chapter 1 we read the creation story

In Genesis chapter 2 we read specifics about Adam and Eve:

Genesis 2:15–17

“15 The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. 16 But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden—17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.””

Genesis 2:25

“25 Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.”

The Garden of Delight

God’s Design - a place of pure peace, close fellowship, and no pain

The Test of Love - a single tree, and a clear choice given to human free will

The Lie - The enemy whispered that do was holding out on them, planting the seed of doubt

So we have Adam and Eve, loving life, walking with God, living in paradise without a care in the world.

I want to note that God gave Adam every tree in the garden…except one.

Why is it that we often want the one we can’t have!

The story continues in the very next verse…

Genesis 3:1–7

“1 The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” 2 “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. 3 “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’ ” 4 “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. 5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” 6 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. 7 At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.”

The Turn and the Fall

The bite of disobedience - reaching for wisdom apart from the creator.

The hiding - Shame entered the human heart for the first time, fear replaced trust.

The exile - Guarded gates and a broken world, where thorns and sweat took over the earth.

The Decent to Gehenna

The path of sin - sin does not stay still it grows and ruins generations

Paul tells us in Romans 5:12 “ When Adam sinned, sin entered the world.” Adams choice to disobey God was sin. Let’s talk about sin for a minute to get a full grasp of how bad sin really is.

The Hebrew word for "sin" used throughout the Old Testament is *chata* (khaw-TAH). It's actually an archery term. It means "to miss the mark."

Illustration of someone missing the mark…Paper airplane throwing contest.

We do not have the ability to hit the mark

You might say, But pastor Steve, I’m not that bad. Consider how God views the law.

James 2:10 “10 For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws.”

Illustration of breaking a branch.

Consequences of Rebellion—Through the rebellion of humanity, we all:

 Die—this implies separation, physically and spiritually with both temporal and eternal consequences—cf.

Genesis 2:17 “17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.””

Romans 5:12–19 “12 When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners.

Hebrews 2:14–15

“14 Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. 15 Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.”

Colossians 2:13

“You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins.”

Paul uses tenses to describe their spiritual state.

The picture of Gehenna - It was a trash valley outside of Jerusalem, burning with unquenched fire, a symbol of total separation from God.

 Entered a state of guilt as “sinners”

Romans 3:10 “10 As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous— not even one.”

Job 14:4 “4 Who can bring purity out of an impure person? No one!”

Jeremiah 17:9 “9 “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?”

 Were made subject to the wrath of God

Romans 1:18 “18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.”

Ephesians 2:3 “3 All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.”

Ephesians 5:6 “6 Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey him.”

Colossians 3:6 “6 Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming.”

Revelation 6:16 “16 And they cried to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.”

 Were made “slaves to sin”

Romans 5:19 “19 Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous.”

Romans 6:6 “6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.”

Romans 6:16–17 “16 Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. 17 Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you.”

Romans 6:20 “20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right.”

 Lost our moral innocence

Genesis 3:7 “7 At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.”

 Became subject to chaos, including conflict in relationships and conflict in the natural world

Genesis 3:16 “16 Then he said to the woman, “I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.””

Romans 8:22–23 “For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children,* including the new bodies he has promised us.”

 the Moral Law of God is still in operation through the soul

Romans 2:14–15 “14 Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. 15 They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right.”

Encourage Change

Sin separates us but God’s grace pursues us.

Shame makes us hide but God seeks us out.

We all inherit Adam’s choice, but Christ offers us a new one.