Speaker 1: 1st Baptist, baptist El Dorado, will you join me now in listening to our sermon from this week?
Speaker 1: Turn with me to Genesis, chapter 3.
Speaker 1: I want to read verse 1 through 9, and then I want us to walk through it together Genesis 3.
Speaker 1: Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
Speaker 1: He said to the woman did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?
Speaker 1: And the woman said to the serpent we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: Then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 1: But the Lord God called to the man and said to him where are you?
Speaker 1: Let's pray together.
Speaker 1: Lord Jesus, would you speak now by your spirit?
Speaker 1: Transform us by your word in Christ's name, amen.
Speaker 1: How did this happen?
Speaker 1: How did I get here?
Speaker 1: Where do we go from here?
Speaker 1: These were the questions I was asking myself.
Speaker 1: In late August of 2012.
Speaker 1: I had graduated college just a few months before.
Speaker 1: I had an internship that paid me somewhere around 58 cents an hour.
Speaker 1: I had $87 to my name and I looked at a buddy of mine and said with all those things going our way, we need to make a cross-country trip.
Speaker 1: We need to go to Washington State.
Speaker 1: It was Labor Day weekend and one of my favorite musical artists was playing three nights at the Gorge Amphitheater.
Speaker 1: The Gorge Amphitheater you can put a picture up and scroll through nicknamed Heaven's Amphitheater.
Speaker 1: It's this beautiful concert venue that truly overlooks this gorge, the scale of a Grand Canyon type gorge.
Speaker 1: It overlooks just a beautiful venue.
Speaker 1: And again, when you have $87 in your bank account, that's when you do it.
Speaker 1: And so we flew into Seattle and instantly everything started going wrong.
Speaker 1: Because we hadn't planned anything, there wasn't anything to go right, but everything went wrong and there was a Motel 6 stay in Issaquah, washington, and then we arrive at the venue, at the campsite, where we're going to spend three nights.
Speaker 1: We get there and find out very quickly we have not planned at all.
Speaker 1: We had packed a tent in our luggage that was able to fit within our suitcase on the plane and we thought we'd be in good company there.
Speaker 1: We get there and realize that there are real-life adults that plan for these things.
Speaker 1: And so we're at the campsite with 30,000 truly other people and I wish you could see it.
Speaker 1: I wish I had a picture.
Speaker 1: But imagine this A large RV, an RV, an RV, a two-person tent, an RV, an RV.
Speaker 1: And that's exactly what we did.
Speaker 1: People felt sorry for us and I felt sorry for me, and I remember the three hours of every night we were at the show.
Speaker 1: It was heaven on earth.
Speaker 1: It was unbelievable.
Speaker 1: The other 21 hours of those three days not so good.
Speaker 1: And I remember laying down in late August it's already chilly, very chilly at night in Washington State.
Speaker 1: I remember sleeping on the cold, hard ground.
Speaker 1: Next to me someone's in a heated RV and I'm freezing, I'm shivering, the ground hurts and I'm asking the question how did this happen?
Speaker 1: How in the world did I get here?
Speaker 1: What in the world do I do now?
Speaker 1: These are the same questions we ask in Genesis, chapter 3.
Speaker 1: How did we get here?
Speaker 1: How did this happen?
Speaker 1: And yet in Genesis, chapter 3, the stakes are a little bit higher than a chilly night on the ground of a campsite.
Speaker 1: The stakes actually have eternal significance, not just for Adam and Eve, but for you and I, for all of our eternities, for all of our salvation.
Speaker 1: How did we get here?
Speaker 1: How did this happen?
Speaker 1: Because last week we saw Genesis 1 and 2, everything was right, everything was perfect.
Speaker 1: We have a creator, we're made in the image of that creator, we're made to honor that creator.
Speaker 1: And then we turn one page and everything goes wrong.
Speaker 1: Chapter 3, verse 1,.
Speaker 1: Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
Speaker 1: So instantly a new character arrives in the story up until this point it's the Lord, it's man, it's woman, man made in the image of God, woman as well, made from the the side of Adam.
Speaker 1: But now you have Adam and Eve, you have God.
Speaker 1: And now a fourth character comes on the scene the serpent.
Speaker 1: And we know this isn't just any serpent.
Speaker 1: This is Satan serpent.
Speaker 1: And we know this isn't just any serpent.
Speaker 1: This is Satan, this is the tempter, this is the evil one himself who has come into the garden.
Speaker 1: And what does he say?
Speaker 1: He said to the woman did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree that is in the garden?
Speaker 1: Did God actually say that?
Speaker 1: Now, if you were to ask Satan in that moment, what is he up to?
Speaker 1: He'd say nothing.
Speaker 1: Just, were to ask Satan in that moment, what is he up to?
Speaker 1: He'd say nothing.
Speaker 1: Just, I'm just asking the questions, I'm just posing a question.
Speaker 1: Maybe God actually did say it.
Speaker 1: I'm just clarifying.
Speaker 1: That's what he'd say.
Speaker 1: Nothing wrong with clarifying.
Speaker 1: Is there Nothing wrong with just making sure you're on the same page with God?
Speaker 1: That's actually kind of him, isn't it?
Speaker 1: He just wants to make sure Eve's on the same page with God.
Speaker 1: Did God actually say.
Speaker 1: What he's doing is very deceptive.
Speaker 1: He just wants to put a little seed of curiosity in Eve's heart, or maybe confusion, about the word of God.
Speaker 1: Did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?
Speaker 1: We see just one chapter before, in verse 16 of chapter 2, that actually God said you may surely eat of every tree that's in the garden.
Speaker 1: You see, satan wants God's rules to sound so negative, when really this command is given in the context of absolute freedom you may eat of any tree that is in the garden.
Speaker 1: Now, following that, there is one command I give you Don't eat of the one tree in the middle of the garden, but the whole garden is open to you.
Speaker 1: And yet Satan wants to say did God actually say it?
Speaker 1: Are you sure he said what you think you said?
Speaker 1: As a quick side note, eve should have just walked away at this moment.
Speaker 1: You and I, our problem and our temptation, when the evil one tempts us as well, is that we talk back to him.
Speaker 1: We try to have a conversation.
Speaker 1: If Eve had just run away in this moment, things might have gone differently.
Speaker 1: But she speaks, verse 2, and the woman said to the serpent we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden.
Speaker 1: Verse 2, she does.
Speaker 1: Well, that's accurate.
Speaker 1: That is what God said.
Speaker 1: We may eat of the trees, of the fruit of the garden.
Speaker 1: But verse 3, but God said he's still saying what God said you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden.
Speaker 1: Good, so far.
Speaker 1: Neither shall you touch it, lest you die.
Speaker 1: There's two truths in that verse and one lie.
Speaker 1: You may not eat of the tree in the midst of the garden, correct, you will die.
Speaker 1: Correct.
Speaker 1: But right in the middle, neither shall you touch it.
Speaker 1: I turn back one chapter to verse 17 of chapter 2.
Speaker 1: It says this is God speaking the command, but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.
Speaker 1: For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.
Speaker 1: And yet in this moment Eve has added something to it.
Speaker 1: We shall not eat of it.
Speaker 1: But then she has this neither shall you touch it, lest you die.
Speaker 1: Eve actually adds something to it that God did not say, and maybe we could be kind to Eve and say it was an innocent mistake, maybe in her mind she's told herself I'm not even going's told herself I'm not even going to go around it, I'm not even going to touch it, because what if temptation gets strong, if I go touch it, no matter what?
Speaker 1: There seems to be just a sliver of, maybe confusion about what God has said.
Speaker 1: She's added something to it and Satan probably in this moment knows that he's got her.
Speaker 1: He's got her.
Speaker 1: What started with just a simple question.
Speaker 1: We're just asking questions here.
Speaker 1: Did God really say?
Speaker 1: Now, one verse later, we have Eve telling us what God says, but she's not telling us accurately.
Speaker 1: There's a little doubt, there's a little confusion.
Speaker 1: She doesn't quite recall exactly what God has said and so Satan knows he's got her.
Speaker 1: Verse four.
Speaker 1: But the serpent said to the woman you will not surely die, you will not surely die.
Speaker 1: What started in verse one is just a simple curiosity.
Speaker 1: Did God really say A sneaky plan?
Speaker 1: In verse four he comes out right.
Speaker 1: He kind of says the quiet part out loud as he reveals who he is and what he's up to.
Speaker 1: He completely opposes what God has said.
Speaker 1: God said you shall surely die.
Speaker 1: Satan comes and says you're not going to die.
Speaker 1: In fact, reading in the Hebrew that the command of God you shall surely die is two words in the Hebrew.
Speaker 1: Satan also gives those exact same two words, and yet he adds one word, lo in front of it, which simply means not.
Speaker 1: So quite literally, if you spelled that out, not, you shall surely die.
Speaker 1: What Satan is doing is just saying I am negating what God has said.
Speaker 1: It is not the case that you shall surely die.
Speaker 1: He wants to give the exact opposite.
Speaker 1: He wants them to realize, or at least in Satan's eyes, realize that God doesn't mean it.
Speaker 1: You're not actually going to die.
Speaker 1: He is negating the very word of God.
Speaker 1: Instead of God's commands, he wants to give the exact opposite.
Speaker 1: This leads me to point number one, which is simply this man rebels when he doesn't rely on the word of God.
Speaker 1: Man rebels when he doesn't rely on the word of God.
Speaker 1: We instantly see that this is shaping up to do that exact thing, and I ask this question why do we read this story that is thousands and thousands of years old, like, why are we here in 2025 in this beautiful room and thinking about a story of two people that is thousands of years old, with a lot of time in between, a lot of cultural changes, a lot of life.
Speaker 1: Things are different now, aren't they?
Speaker 1: Why do we read this story?
Speaker 1: Well, one and the most simple answer is because it is the word of God.
Speaker 1: That's why we read it.
Speaker 1: It is part of the grand storyline of scripture the garden where man and sin rebel against God that leads to this redemption process.
Speaker 1: We see throughout scripture that points to Christ.
Speaker 1: That's the most important reason, but also, I'd argue this we we read it because the reality is nothing has changed that when you see this story, you think about your heart and my heart and the heart of mankind.
Speaker 1: Nothing has changed here, and even when you study Satan's tactics in this moment, you'll quickly realize this as well.
Speaker 1: Nothing has changed.
Speaker 1: I've been fascinated by watching the NCAA tournament over the last few weeks.
Speaker 1: There's been some highs and there's been one really big low and a lot of fun games and all, but as I've watched, it's just fascinating to think about how it all works.
Speaker 1: On Selection Sunday, a team will find out where they're going and who they're playing.
Speaker 1: Before that they have no idea, and so the assistant coaches will run to their offices and get every piece of game film over a team they have never played before, and so the assistant coaches will run to their offices and get every piece of game film over a team they have never played before and they will stay up all night for about four days learning as much as they can about this team.
Speaker 1: And if they win that, they've got less time.
Speaker 1: They've got about 48 hours or less to stay up all night to study the game film to see how they could possibly beat the new team If they keep winning.
Speaker 1: They do that over and over again.
Speaker 1: What Genesis 3, I believe, gives us is the game film on the strategy of Satan that if we study his tactics, as we study what he's up to, not just in the Garden of Eden, but in El Dorado, arkansas, in 2025, we see clearly what he wants for us.
Speaker 1: And what he wants for us is to be individuals who do not lean on and trust the word of God.
Speaker 1: He would delight that we would be individuals that see the word of God as something that we at least wonder.
Speaker 1: Is it really trustworthy To see this word?
Speaker 1: And wonder?
Speaker 1: Did God really say and he's been doing it forever Matthew, chapter 4, I see Jesus in the wilderness Three times.
Speaker 1: Satan comes to him to tempt him.
Speaker 1: The stone turns to bread, jump off the temple and the angels will catch you.
Speaker 1: Won't that be an impressive spectacle.
Speaker 1: If you'll bow down to me, all the kingdoms of the earth, they'll be yours, and three times.
Speaker 1: How does Jesus combat the temptation of the devil?
Speaker 1: He does it with scripture, with the word of God.
Speaker 1: And I think this if Jesus Christ, god in flesh, the author of the word of God, used the word of God to combat the temptation of Satan, how much more do you and I need it?
Speaker 1: How much more do you and I need to depend on God's word?
Speaker 1: And what happens when we don't?
Speaker 1: There's confusion about what God has said.
Speaker 1: We're unsure about what God has said.
Speaker 1: We'll let culture or the world dictate, maybe, what God has said?
Speaker 1: We're unsure about what God has said.
Speaker 1: We'll let culture or the world dictate, maybe, what God has said, or at least what God meant by what he said.
Speaker 1: And so, as people of God who desire to be victorious over sin in our sanctification, what do we need to be?
Speaker 1: We need to be people of the word, that know the word, that cherish the word, and even as you hear that maybe there's a temptation of, you know, there's the pastor telling me to read the Bible.
Speaker 1: You know that's isn't that what pastors do?
Speaker 1: A little stereotypical.
Speaker 1: You know me saying just read the Bible.
Speaker 1: But I want to tell you, please never read the Bible, because I told you to read the Bible.
Speaker 1: That's a bad reason.
Speaker 1: Never read the Bible because you feel like you need to check a box and that'll finally make you spiritual because you've checked the right box.
Speaker 1: Read this word because it's, as Scripture says, sharper than that double-edged sword that's living, that's active.
Speaker 1: 2 Timothy 2, 3.16.
Speaker 1: 2 Timothy 3.16,.
Speaker 1: The God-inspired, god-written word of God that is good for your life and for your soul and that, as it gets into you not just you getting in the word, but the word getting into you you will have something to draw from when Satan comes to you with the very same tactics he did in the Garden of Eden.
Speaker 1: Because we get in trouble, we rebel when we don't trust the Word of God.
Speaker 1: And so read the Word, know the Word, experience the Word and trust the Word.
Speaker 1: Live out the Word of God.
Speaker 1: Man rebels when he doesn't rely on the word of God, but I believe this man also rebels when he doesn't trust the hand of God.
Speaker 1: Keep reading with me.
Speaker 1: We just saw, in verse four the serpent say this you will not surely die.
Speaker 1: This is Satan completely negating, opposing the word of God.
Speaker 1: Verse five he's still speaking, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
Speaker 1: Let me say that again, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
Speaker 1: As we're studying the game film here and studying these tactics, let me tell you what Satan wants to do right now.
Speaker 1: He wants Adam and Eve to realize that there is something God's not telling them.
Speaker 1: It's not the truth, but he wants them to think that at least there's something God's keeping from you.
Speaker 1: There's something that would sure be nice to have, would sure make you more than you currently are, would sure make you a more impressive individual, would sure give you some power and prestige and some prominence you don't currently have.
Speaker 1: But here's the problem, adam and Eve, that God is just holding out on you.
Speaker 1: It's ironic what Satan is offering.
Speaker 1: You'll be like God.
Speaker 1: It's interesting because just two chapters before, man and woman were made what In the image of God.
Speaker 1: They were made by God to be representatives of God.
Speaker 1: It's ironic that Satan is offering to be like God.
Speaker 1: They're made in the image of God.
Speaker 1: They're not God, of course, but they're made in his image.
Speaker 1: It reminds me again in the temptation of Matthew 4,.
Speaker 1: Satan says Jesus, if you'll just bow down to me, all the kingdoms of the earth will be yours.
Speaker 1: Who's he telling that?
Speaker 1: To?
Speaker 1: The man who created heaven and earth, the one that all the kingdoms of the earth will bow down to him anyway.
Speaker 1: That's just where this thing is heading, and Satan wanted to offer him what Jesus already had.
Speaker 1: And even here you'll be like God.
Speaker 1: To the very people made in the image of God.
Speaker 1: But you know what it made Adam and Eve wonder is God really holding back?
Speaker 1: And the motto of Satan is simply this God is not enough.
Speaker 1: The motto of Satan is this God is not enough.
Speaker 1: Where in your life are you tempted, even now, to ask the question is God holding back?
Speaker 1: Is there more certainly that he could give me, but he's just not right now?
Speaker 1: Or do you look around at those beside you and those around you and saying God sure has blessed them in this certain way?
Speaker 1: Why hasn't he done that for me?
Speaker 1: Yet God seems to be protecting them.
Speaker 1: God seems to be providing for them.
Speaker 1: God has answered those prayers.
Speaker 1: He sure hadn't answered mine.
Speaker 1: Why is he holding out on me?
Speaker 1: And here Satan wants them thinking that there's something more that God can give them.
Speaker 1: Here, satan wants them thinking that there's something more that God can give them, but God doesn't want to.
Speaker 1: The very God who had given them all things.
Speaker 1: Satan wants them to believe that God is holding back.
Speaker 1: And so then we see what happens next.
Speaker 1: Verse 6,.
Speaker 1: So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, 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.
Speaker 1: She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.
Speaker 1: You talk about studying the game film.
Speaker 1: Let's study the game film of our own sin, of our own life.
Speaker 1: Look at the progression that happens here.
Speaker 1: The woman saw that the tree was good for food, number one.
Speaker 1: Number two, it was delight to the eyes.
Speaker 1: And number three, it was to be desired to make one wise.
Speaker 1: To summarize the three points it will satisfy, it pleases the eye and it will provide what I lack.
Speaker 1: Think about that.
Speaker 1: It will satisfy, it pleases the eye, it will desire what I lack.
Speaker 1: Think about any temptation in your own life, any sin that you run to, any sin that is crouching right outside your door.
Speaker 1: I would argue it fits one, two or all three of those categories that it will satisfy me.
Speaker 1: I'll finally get the satisfaction If I can just take hold of that thing.
Speaker 1: There's something I'm missing and if I can have it I'll finally get the validation or the satisfaction or whatever I'm lacking.
Speaker 1: It'll now be mine.
Speaker 1: It pleases the eye, it looks good.
Speaker 1: I don't have it and it looks good and kind of summarizing all.
Speaker 1: It will provide what I lack.
Speaker 1: God has not given it to me yet.
Speaker 1: Maybe God's forgotten about me and he doesn't know.
Speaker 1: I want this or I need this, and god is holding out on me so I can reach out and I can take it for myself.
Speaker 1: That's the story of all of our sin.
Speaker 1: But I also want to see this at the very end of verse 6, she also gave some to her husband who was with her.
Speaker 1: Let's be clear about this.
Speaker 1: She gave some to her husband who was with her, her husband who was with her.
Speaker 1: This is not a one-sided situation.
Speaker 1: This is not Eve, who has gone and eaten the fruit and therefore sin has entered the world because of Eve.
Speaker 1: No, where is Adam?
Speaker 1: Right beside her.
Speaker 1: Right beside her, this is man and this is wife, trying to worship the creature rather than the creator, trying to find themselves as creatures in the place of the creator.
Speaker 1: I can be like God and I can do it without God, but where does it lead us?
Speaker 1: Verse 7,.
Speaker 1: Then the eyes of both were open.
Speaker 1: They knew that they were naked.
Speaker 1: They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
Speaker 1: Verse 8, 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 in the garden.
Speaker 1: There's those questions how did we get here?
Speaker 1: What has happened?
Speaker 1: What have we become?
Speaker 1: It's interesting.
Speaker 1: So often in our sin not always, but sometimes in tempting us, satan will tell us some of the truth.
Speaker 1: He never tells us the whole truth.
Speaker 1: He'll tell us some of the truth.
Speaker 1: He never tells us the whole truth.
Speaker 1: He'll tell us some of the truth.
Speaker 1: He'll say things like your eyes will be opened.
Speaker 1: That's very true.
Speaker 1: He'll say things like you'll know good and evil.
Speaker 1: Man and woman now know good and evil at a very personal level.
Speaker 1: But he'll never tell us the whole truth.
Speaker 1: He'll never tell us what happens next.
Speaker 1: He'll never tell us that that sin will leave you in shame and will leave you hiding from your very creator.
Speaker 1: He'll never tell you where that sin ends.
Speaker 1: And so often in your own life you've been tempted to run after sin and Satan has told you all of the wonderful things about that sin you've been chasing after and maybe for a moment and I mean a moment you felt like you had arrived, and yet Satan never told you anything about the aftermath.
Speaker 1: He never told you about the consequences of those sins.
Speaker 1: He never told you about the forgiveness that you would have to ask of from God but also have tough conversations with others.
Speaker 1: He never told you about brokenness of trust within relationship that sin can cause.
Speaker 1: He never told you about how sin can impact the community, the church, the family.
Speaker 1: He doesn't tell you about the aftermath.
Speaker 1: He just wants to tell you about what that sin can offer you.
Speaker 1: He never tells you the whole story.
Speaker 1: Adam and Eve didn't get the whole story.
Speaker 1: Here and now they are experiencing the rest of the story and they do not like what they've gotten.
Speaker 1: Here they are.
Speaker 1: They've realized they're naked, they realize they're in shame.
Speaker 1: And they are hiding from their creator.
Speaker 1: Think about that with me for a second.
Speaker 1: For two chapters, perfect communion with God.
Speaker 1: And now, just a few verses later, they are hiding from the very God who created them, the very God who can do anything about their predicament.
Speaker 1: They are hiding from him, amen.
Speaker 1: Verse 9,.
Speaker 1: But the Lord God called to the man and said to him where are you?
Speaker 1: The Lord God called to the man and said to him where are you?
Speaker 1: Where should this story go?
Speaker 1: Next, after verse 8, where should this story go?
Speaker 1: If I were the sovereign God of the universe praise God, I'm not.
Speaker 1: Here's how my story would go.
Speaker 1: Verse 8 you would hear me walking through the garden.
Speaker 1: But then it'd be my time to handle business.
Speaker 1: It'd be my time to let Adam and Eve know that was a mistake, to let them know that not only was that a mistake, but you're now wiped off the face of the planet.
Speaker 1: We're going to try again with another couple and see if they do a little bit better.
Speaker 1: How could you mess up this much?
Speaker 1: I gave you all this freedom and you went after the one tree.
Speaker 1: I told you not to.
Speaker 1: I would have let them know.
Speaker 1: And let's be clear, there is moments of judgment that are coming.
Speaker 1: We'll see next week.
Speaker 1: But I would have handled it differently.
Speaker 1: What does God do?
Speaker 1: He seeks out the very ones who were hiding, who were naked, who were ashamed, who had just broken the command he had given.
Speaker 1: God knows where they are.
Speaker 1: God's never lost a game of hide-and-go-seek in his life.
Speaker 1: He knows right where they're at.
Speaker 1: And yet he asked this question so that man and woman would communicate with him to provide an answer, and we'll see more of that next week.
Speaker 1: Communicate with him to provide an answer, and we'll see more of that next week.
Speaker 1: But simply the grace in the fact that God would call out to them when are you?
Speaker 1: In their hiding, in their shame.
Speaker 1: God says189 chapters in the Bible.
Speaker 1: 1,189 chapters in the Bible.
Speaker 1: We had two of perfect communion with God, and then three chapters in.
Speaker 1: We made it all fall apart.
Speaker 1: And yet, early on, only nine verses in to us, making it fall apart, we see a God who walks through the garden looking for his creation Not his perfect, impressive, ashamed creation.
Speaker 1: Where are you?
Speaker 1: And for the rest of these chapters of this book.
Speaker 1: The story continues about how God continued to seek out his people who were hiding and who were ashamed.
Speaker 1: The whole story it's not always a pretty story on our end of the equation.
Speaker 1: In fact it shows more and more how rebellious you and I can be.
Speaker 1: And yet the whole story is the story of God asking where are you, and not just asking but doing something about it.
Speaker 1: That God would send his own son, in the likeness of you and I in flesh, to come seek us out at a very personal level.
Speaker 1: And all of our sin and rebellion, from Adam and Eve and to you and I today, all of it placed upon himself.
Speaker 1: His own son on the cross.
Speaker 1: That's what this book is about, so that as we turn to first Corinthians 15, we can read these verses in verse 21.
Speaker 1: For as by a man came death, by a man has also come the resurrection of the dead Verse 22,.
Speaker 1: Look at this.
Speaker 1: For in Adam all die.
Speaker 1: We see that.
Speaker 1: We've seen that just now.
Speaker 1: For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
Speaker 1: The sermon's over.
Speaker 1: But I want to give you three words, the three best words you can hear when you're hiding and you're ashamed when you're hiding and you're ashamed.
Speaker 1: The three best words Adam and Eve can hear in the garden running from their creator.
Speaker 1: The three best words we can find in our own moments of sin, our own moments of shame, our own moments of hiding, the three best words that will turn this sermon into just a sermon about how we messed everything up, into a sermon that God can actually do something with and into a sermon that will point us to something in the future.
Speaker 1: The three best words when you're hiding in a shame is simply this, to be continued that the grand storyline of Scripture tells us that, beginning with a garden, as dark as it may look, the story's not over.
Speaker 1: There's another garden coming at Gethsemane, when Jesus said Lord, your will be done.
Speaker 1: Because of that, he went to the cross An early Sunday morning in a garden tomb.
Speaker 1: He walked out of the grave, and that tells me this that there's a future garden, a garden city that's waiting for us the new heavens and the new earth.
Speaker 1: So, truly, in the truest sense, this story is to be continued, that Christ is on the move From before the foundation of the world, but certainly from this moment of fall in the garden.
Speaker 1: God is on the move.
Speaker 1: Redemption is coming and on Easter morning we will celebrate together what we really celebrate every Sunday morning.
Speaker 1: That redemption has come.
Speaker 1: Maybe for you this morning, you want that redemption.
Speaker 1: You hear that and you say no, no, I'm not waiting three more weeks to Easter.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have Easter right here, right now.
Speaker 1: Come down, talk with me and let me introduce you to Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Maybe you want to join our church family and be a part of what God is doing here.
Speaker 1: That's what we want.
Speaker 1: We want you with us.
Speaker 1: We'll be a lot better church when you get here.
Speaker 1: Maybe you want a pastor to pray over you.
Speaker 1: We'd love to get to do that, but however, you need to respond.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's right where you're at, just doing business with the Lord, right there in your pew.
Speaker 1: However, you need to respond after I pray.
Speaker 1: I'd ask that you do it.
Speaker 1: Let me pray for us.
Speaker 1: Lord Jesus, thank you for the gospel.
Speaker 1: Thank you that, though we were dead in sins, the story's not over.
Speaker 1: It is to be continued.
Speaker 1: That, as in Adam, all die, so in Christ, all will be made alive.
Speaker 1: If there's one this morning, that needs to be continued.
Speaker 1: That, as in Adam, all die, so in Christ, all will be made alive.
Speaker 1: If there's one this morning that needs to be made alive, would they come now by your spirit, lord, we thank you for the truth of the gospel.
Speaker 1: Lord, let us be people of that gospel as we respond this morning.
Speaker 1: Would we just do business with you as you do work in our hearts.
Speaker 1: We ask this in Christ's name, amen.
Speaker 1: Will you stand now as we worship together?
Speaker 1: I'll be down front.