The fall chapel message

You can all sit down

I am Deaconess Emily

We are looking at creation and the first sin today. Here, God had already created light, darkness, plants, animals, and now he makes humans!

Genesis 1:27(ESV)

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Genesis 2:15–17 (ESV)

15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 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.”

English Standard Version Chapter 3

3 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, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened,

Start of message

Today we are going to talk about being built on the promise of Jesus coming to make all things right again.

You see, God created a perfect world!

There was no sadness, no sickness, no fighting, it was great!

just pure happiness. and the best part?!

They got to be with God! in person! They got to actually walk around with him all the time! wouldn’t that be so cool?! you could ask him anything you want!

I have something with me to help you see what else God created. Now my friend is a little shy, and will be staying up here on the chancel with me the entire time. so you don’t have to worry, my friend and i will be staying right here in this space we call the chancel.

This is my pet snake named Loki.

Loki is my ball python. He is my pet and lives in my house in a special vivarium. Ball pythons come from the

forests & savannahs of Africa, although Loki was born in Texas.

About 3 feet long, weighs 1 and 1/2 pounds

special sensory heat pits to detect heat and prey.

But loki here as named after the fictional mischief maker because of this bible verse! The serpent, which is actually the devil, convinces Eve, who convinces Adam, to eat from the tree they weren’t supposed to!

the serpent here was actually the devil - Satan. One thing the devil likes to do is lie. He tells a lie to eve and says “You aren’t going to die if you eat the fruit!”

It doesn’t seem true.. But the tree causes a kind of death. Eve didn’t fall over and die right there, neither did Adam, but sin separates us from God, which causes us to die, because we can’t be near God anymore.

This is just..… terrible news! and adam and eve are afraid! But God comes to them and he speaks to the serpent and says something kind of weird. he says that a human is going to bruise the serpents head. He is going to stomp on and crush the serpent’s head.

Does that mean we should go around stomping on snakes heads???

No! they’re actually part of God‘s creation and God made them for purpose so we’re not gonna do that. We’re gonna treat them with respect just like any of God‘s creatures because God also not talking about actual snakes!

God is talking about sin and the devil these are all kind of tangled up together. So here when he says he’s gonna crush his head he doesn’t mean go around stomping on all the snakes we can find.

He actually means the devil and how is God going to crush the devil’s head?

He’s actually gonna do it through Jesus. We’re talking about being built on the promise.

God had a plan from the beginning of time to rescue you and me. it’s right here at the beginning of the Bible!

The promise is that God is going to send his only son Jesus to die for us, and when he dies on the cross, he takes all of the sin of the world all of your sins, all of my sins, and he takes him to the cross, and there is where

He crushes the head of sin, death and the devil forever, and our firm foundation is that we are forgiven, and we are loved by Jesus.

it’s easy while we are here to only see the sin in the world. when a friend does something you don’t like or a brother or sister are mean to you. we tend to focus on sin, and feel guilty, and even blame others for what we do like Adam. who says “it was her!” it seems so big.

it seems like there are huge serpents, way bigger than loki everywhere!

and maybe you’re carrying them around your neck and they wrap around you.

but I'm here to tell you that that’s not true!

When jesus died on the cross, he crushed the serpents head. that means that Jesus put the devil in his place. that death is gone, that sin is taken care of.

Sin separates us from God. but Jesus brings us back to have a relation with him. How does he do that?

baptism - baptism washes your sins away and marks you as one saved by Jesus.

asking for forgiveness - when we pray to God and ask him to forgive us from all the things we have done - he forgives us! no strings or snakes attached!

forgiving others - instead of placing blame like Adam did, ask god to forgive those around you of their sins.

Hearing God’s word. Listen to what God says about being a forgiven, and loved child of God. He says:

English Standard Version Chapter 1

eph 1:7 In Jesus we have (freedom)

through his blood, the forgiveness of our (sins), according to the riches of his grace!

Lets pray:

Heavenly father, thank you for all of your creation, for animals, plants, my family, my pets, and even snakes. most of all we thank you for sending your son jesus to die on the cross for us to be our firm foundation so that we can live with you forever. amen.