Sermon Tone Analysis

Series Introduction

Aberdeen MD; House of Cards, a show on Netflix, about an evil politician (not a lot of creativity there) Congressman will do anything to gain power and exact revenge; even kill; He is an example of an anti-hero; a main character of the story who lacks heroic qualities, yet still drives the story and in many cases like the Bible, his/her actions are evil, but God uses them for good;

Since we are approaching VBS, and the theme is Heroes, I thought this would be a good lead up to that.

Sermon Introduction

Bad girls of the Bible; a book about the bad men in the Bible?

We pretty much have that book already, it’s called The Bible; we’ll get to those later; but there are bad women in the Bible, although you have to really look for them; even when they are bad, in many cases they’re dealing with a problem a man created, or they’re being bad because the man deserved it; first 2 sermons are about female anti heroes;

Eve is our antihero, but I’ll make some sobering comments first: Eve is portrayed as the first sinner, and throughout history (even today) this has been used to control, oppress, women; women have been excluded from leadership in the church and just about anywhere else in society; women in many cultures including our own have been considered more susceptible to deception than men; intellectually inferior, Eve is infamously known as the first sinner.

Our focus is on Eve and her encounter with temptation.

Notice something about the tempter: he speaks.

Have you ever met someone who loves their pets more than people?

I’ve had the unfortunate opportunity to meet a few people like that: usually these are people who have shut themselves off from meaningful human relationships and focus their relational attention on their cats and dogs.

(ex.

dog groomer, ex hair stylist), where relationships come much easier.

They don’t hold you accountable.

They don’t tell you that you need to lose weight, you should apologize to that person, that you are lazy, or you just need to get your life right.

Most of the time they just want to fed, petted and played with.

Limited in their capacity to communicate.

We might think of Adam (and eventually Eve) as being surrounded by unintelligible animals.

But we read in Genesis that one of the animals stood above the rest: This is not some scaly creature who slithers on the ground or up trees.

He speaks, has intelligent conversations with the first couple, and is very wise.

There’s a lesson here: the greatest temptations often come through those who are closest to us: those with the greatest influence in our lives.

Those in whose wisdom we trust.

(not trying to make you paranoid, not trying to case the blame on that person who tempted me...)

In our story, the temptation begins by distorting God:

Distorting God

But did God say?

Fights between siblings are hard to decipher unless you have nanny cams all around your house.

I did not!

Yes I did!

I never said that! Yes you did! Often in an argument words get distorted.

Who was the first sinner?

Eve?

The serpent!

The serpent first sinner: he distorted God words.

Distorted the words of God.

The serpent misquotes Jesus:

Who was the first sinner?

Eve?

The serpent!

The serpent first sinner: he distorted God words.

Distorted the words of God.

The serpent misquotes Jesus:

Serpent first sinner - distorted God

The serpent misquotes Jesus:

Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?

When in fact God had said:

You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

Eve actually misquotes God as well:

you must not touch it, or you will die.

Notice the extra words.

Not only did God say we can’t eat it - he said we can’t touch it.

This happens with the Bible - Scripture is misquoted, taken out of context and distorted.

Taking Scripture out of context is a problem for Christians - I could cite many examples, but here’s one I think is funny.

I’m not sure if the “I really miss you” greeting cards still do this, but I remember getting a few with this verse in it:

You want it?

God has it.

Just ask.

Often this is quoted by celebrity preachers in the prosperity Gospel tradition.

If you read the 8 verses before that, God gives us examples of what to ask for—forgiveness, the coming of God’s kingdom, and our daily bread.

Here’s another example:

Context: “Don’t steal my stuff, may God punish you if you do.”

Distortion of God’s word, taking it out of context and using it for our own purposes.

“God will never give you more than you can handle.”

That’s not even in the Bible.

promises us that we will not be tempted beyond what we can bear, but you and I can think of plenty of times when we have been given more than we can handle.

We pray during such times, because we know we can’t carry our burdens alone.

Then the serpent distorts the character of God:

Then the serpent distorts the character of God:

You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.

5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

The serpent questions God’s motives.

God isn’t trying to test your obedience or protect you from destruction: God doesn’t want you being like Him.

In fact, you don’t need God.

Once we have edited the Words of God and distorted His character, and ignore him (become a functional atheist) sin becomes all the more appealing.

The Appeal of Sin

The Appeal of Sin

The Appeal of Sin

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the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom

Sin is appealing.

It is fun for a season - sometimes longer than that.

We wouldn’t sin if it were such a horrible experience.

(sneaking down for collard greens?)

Raiding the desserts - that’s appealing, tasty, fun for a season, but like sin it can be hard to get them out of your system until the damage is done.

But we always follow our greatest desire.

When you hear someone say, “Sorry, I wish I could help...” do you ever questioned the truthfulness of that statement?

We always follow our greatest desire.

We empty the contents of our wallet and give them to a robber, because our greater desire is to live.

We go without sleep at night because our greater desire is to take care of a sick child.

When God is our greatest desire, it changes all of our decision making.

We love our neighbor because Jesus says so.

We love our enemies because Jesus says so.

We lay down our lives because Jesus says so (and did so).

Eve, at this point in the story follows her greatest desire: pleasure and wisdom and not God.

The Act of Sin

she took some and ate it.

She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Interesting words: “who was with her.”

In the picture books Eve has a one on one conversation with the serpent, eats the fruit and then Adam happens along.

It looks like he’s been here all along.