Sermon Tone Analysis

Series: The Journey: Strolling through the Scripture with the Savior

Title: No! That’s Good!

ATTN

Pic - Sam and the Shams

Ok, if you were really a radio fan back in the day, you may remember “Sam and the Shams” and a little song called No That’s Good.

The words went something like this:

Not long ago I was walking down the street

When a woman in a car knocked me off my feet

(Ohhhhh, That's Bad)

No, That's Good

My insurance paid me a lot of dough

More money than I'd seen in a year's payroll

(Ohhhhh, That's Good)

No, That's Bad

My doctor's bills is where my money went

And all I had left was a very bad limp

(Ohhhhh, That's Bad).

No, That's Good

Cause the way I walked got me a role

As the marshall's partner on a TV show

Pretty young actresses started hanging 'round

And every night we'd do the town

(Ohhhhh, That's Good)

No, That's Bad

I ended up back in a hospital bed

'Cause my horse fell on my bad leg

(Ohhhhh, That's Bad)

No, That's Good

'Cause just when I was feeling my worst

I fell in love with a beautiful nurse

(Ohhhhh, That's Good)

No, That's Bad

'Cause I found out she was the doctor's wife

Now I'll be in a wheelchair the rest of my life

'Cause no matter how I pleaded and begged

He operated on my good leg

(Ohhhhh, That's Bad)

No, That's AWFUL

Well, there you go: What you think is good can really be bad and what you think is bad can actually be awful, but the opposite is also true.

What you think is bad can really be good!

BACKGROUND

Last week we began this series entitled The Journey showing the important part Scripture planes our journey through the Scripture at the beginning: Genesis.

God has created a perfect world in which man can live.

and 2 are amazing chapters that highlight God’s sovereign power and man’s amazing relationship with that God.

But then this amazing relationship falls to the serpent’s lie.

Faced with the option to worship God or to worship self, Adam and Eve turn themselves and their own knowledge into idols and reap the shame and guilt their rebellion brings.

Before when God would come to walk with them at the end of the day, they welcomed Him, but now, they cower in shame and fear, hiding from the God who sees everything.

Confronted by their sin they begin to blame: Adam blames Eve; Eve blames the serpent, then God steps in.

He pronounces their judgment which brings us to our text for today.

Let’s read God’s word together.

Now, before you begin to think that God is harsh in this judgment, just remember that it was God Who created Adam and Eve, placed them in the perfect environment, spent time with them every day and only asked one thing from them.

Then, even when they have disobeyed, He comes to look for them.

What mercy!

14 So the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life.

15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” 16 To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.” 17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life.

18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field.

19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”

20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.

21 Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.

22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil.

And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.

24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

Now, before you begin to think that God is harsh in this judgment, just remember that it was God Who created Adam and Eve, placed them in the perfect environment, spent time with them every day and only asked one thing from them.

Then, even when they have disobeyed, He comes to look for them.

What mercy!

And yet that mercy must include God’s judgment of sin.

That may be a little hard to really get your head around.

How can judgment be merciful?

Well, if you see judgment and mercy as irreconcilable forces, maybe you need to readjust your viewpoint.

I would submit to you that what God does in is not negative but positive.

Yes, it is judgment, but there is some powerful mercy here.

His judgment actually IS mercy.

NEED

Now, before you write me off as crazy, please hear me out.

I think you might be glad you did.

The reason I say that is because understanding God’s mercy can help you if you’re discouraged by your own defeat.

You may feel like Satan is winning in your life and that there is little hope for you.

I encourage you to listen this morning.

Others may be frustrated by conflict.

You are at odds with your spouse and you can’t seem to get along.

Listen this morning.

may shed a lot of light on the conflict you are in.

Maybe you’re struggling with death.

Someone close to you has died and you are struggling with the whole idea of death.

Why would a God Who claims to be merciful allow something so horrible as death.

What loving God could do that?

Listen.

may have a very powerful lesson.

TRANS:

I firmly believe that God’s judgment actually IS mercy and I believe that for some reasons you can see in .

God’s judgment is merciful because of what it can achieve in our lives.

What does the mercy of His judgment achieve?

Well, in the first place, God’s judgment:

D1

God’s judgment develops our dependence.

EXP

Now, the text begins with God’s judgment on the serpent, but I am going to save that one for later and look at His judgment on the woman and the man.

With both the woman and the man, God sends their greatest frustration in the areas of their greatest potential.

The woman was frustrated in her greatest fulfillment.

Take the woman: in v 16 He says to Eve, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children . . .