WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:02.399 To the book of Genesis and chapter one. 00:00:03.200 --> 00:00:08.160 So we won't be traveling too far, but we'll start at that very first chapter. 00:00:16.960 --> 00:00:20.320 Fyodor Dostoevsky said this. 00:00:21.280 --> 00:00:25.679 He said, Man does wrong even when he knows the right. 00:00:27.199 --> 00:00:30.160 And when he said that, he wasn't trying to be dramatic. 00:00:30.399 --> 00:00:36.960 He was actually describing something he saw himself and he saw in every other person that he met. 00:00:37.679 --> 00:00:40.640 That there's a contradiction inside the human heart. 00:00:43.439 --> 00:00:51.119 Remarkably and tragically, we are capable of astonishing beauty and agonizing cruelty. 00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:54.240 And sometimes even in the same hour. 00:00:56.159 --> 00:01:02.000 I think all of us recognize that there's something within us that's bent, and there's something in us that's broken. 00:01:02.719 --> 00:01:04.640 And we all just know it. 00:01:05.680 --> 00:01:12.319 But it's more than just a moral contradiction, it's an ache in our heart. 00:01:13.120 --> 00:01:17.599 There's something we feel, not just something we choose to do. 00:01:19.680 --> 00:01:32.480 And everywhere that we look, we see people who are dealing with that ache, with that restlessness, with that longing to be something different than they actually are, are never able to be it. 00:01:34.159 --> 00:01:41.200 Sometimes you see people trying to eradicate that ache through just diving into passions and pleasures. 00:01:41.599 --> 00:01:44.079 Other people are filled with anxieties. 00:01:44.400 --> 00:01:50.239 Some wrestle with a screaming emptiness and silence. 00:01:52.159 --> 00:01:53.840 We're all restless. 00:01:54.719 --> 00:01:56.400 We're all frustrated. 00:01:56.879 --> 00:02:00.959 We're all wondering why things are the way they are. 00:02:01.920 --> 00:02:06.159 And every one of us can say life just isn't as it should be. 00:02:07.680 --> 00:02:09.039 Something's off here. 00:02:11.520 --> 00:02:12.800 Something's missing. 00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:16.080 But here's the thing. 00:02:17.439 --> 00:02:28.879 Though every human heart says that, it's only when we really understand what was supposed to be that we can actually understand how broken we actually are. 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:41.199 It's only when we recognize the beauty of the design that God had for us that we can understand just how fractured that original image is. 00:02:42.159 --> 00:02:59.520 And so before we get into the fractured image, which is the topic of this message in the Amalgo Day series, I want us to look at the design and to remember it before we dig into the distortion of it. 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:05.520 And before we face the fracture, I want us to see the beauty that God originally created. 00:03:05.759 --> 00:03:08.560 And over the last several weeks, we've been looking at that. 00:03:08.719 --> 00:03:11.840 We've sought to capture a vision of that beauty. 00:03:12.080 --> 00:03:26.400 We've understood humanity, male and female, designed by God, stamped with his image, created for grand and glorious purposes, to reflect his person in this universe and everything that we do. 00:03:26.960 --> 00:03:47.439 That we're marked with the dignity of that connection, and that we have been given a glorious purpose in our reflection of him, and that he's given us an amazing task to cultivate this world under his lordship and in reflection of his sovereignty. 00:03:48.960 --> 00:04:01.919 We've seen that the image has shaped our capacities for reason, our capacities for righteousness, our capacities for rulership, and our capacities for relationship. 00:04:02.879 --> 00:04:04.879 We've seen what we were meant to be. 00:04:05.840 --> 00:04:11.680 And just for a moment, let's sort of reflect back on that and just read a passage that shows that to us again. 00:04:11.840 --> 00:04:24.319 So here in Genesis chapter 1 and verse 26, God said, Let us make man in our image according to our likeness. 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:33.759 And they would rule the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth. 00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:36.480 And so God created man in his own image. 00:04:36.639 --> 00:04:40.480 He created him in the image of God, he created them, male and female. 00:04:41.279 --> 00:04:54.079 And God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, rule the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky and every creature that crawls on the earth. 00:04:55.040 --> 00:05:05.199 God also said, Look, I've given you every seed-bearing plant on the surface of the entire earth, and every tree whose fruit contains seed. 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:08.000 All this will be food for you. 00:05:08.319 --> 00:05:19.759 For all the wildlife of the earth, for every bird of the sky, and for every creature that crawls on the earth, everything that having breath of the life in it, I've given every green plant for food. 00:05:20.720 --> 00:05:21.839 And it was so. 00:05:23.040 --> 00:05:26.560 And then we give this beautiful summary of all creation. 00:05:27.680 --> 00:05:33.199 God saw that all that he had made, and it was very good indeed. 00:05:33.839 --> 00:05:37.360 Evening came, then morning, the sixth day. 00:05:39.199 --> 00:05:45.040 If the eight tells us that something is broken, Genesis 1 tells us what it was meant to be. 00:05:45.920 --> 00:06:03.920 And before the fracture, there was only this beauty where God could look back on it in sort of retrospect, seeing everything as it's laid out in its order, and says, like he hadn't said with the other days, this is very good indeed. 00:06:06.079 --> 00:06:08.959 What a beautiful, beautiful creation. 00:06:10.240 --> 00:06:34.000 And us at the pinnacle of it all, in this unbroken connection with God, stamped with his image, living within his created realm, and enjoying an unclouded relationship with God, our Maker, filled with purpose and living with unhindered joy and fullness. 00:06:35.360 --> 00:06:46.319 Humanity created with a unique connection to God that gives us dignity and was meant to set for us our eternal destiny. 00:06:47.279 --> 00:06:52.560 You see, we weren't only made by God, we were made toward God and for God. 00:06:53.680 --> 00:06:59.120 And that image that He's put upon us bonds us together with Him. 00:07:00.639 --> 00:07:02.079 And it was meant to be visible. 00:07:03.279 --> 00:07:07.360 The things that we've talked about here indicate that. 00:07:07.759 --> 00:07:20.079 We were designed to reflect God corporately, male and female together, displaying his character, displaying his ways, and carrying out his purposes that he designed for us in this world. 00:07:20.959 --> 00:07:28.480 And because we were bearing his image, we are to reflect him in every area of responsibility that we had. 00:07:29.040 --> 00:07:32.399 And that image carries with it several different capacities. 00:07:32.639 --> 00:07:36.240 And you've heard these words, the four R's that we've talked about. 00:07:36.560 --> 00:07:59.759 Reason, thinking God's thoughts after him, righteousness, living in moral alignment with God's character, rulership, exercising wise and careful stewardship as God's representatives, relationship, loving God fully, loving as he loves, and giving as he gives. 00:08:00.560 --> 00:08:06.480 Now, all those things are not random abilities, actually, they're the outworking of our image. 00:08:06.639 --> 00:08:15.120 In fact, some people would look at them and say, either one of those or composite of those four things, or actually what it means to be in the image of God. 00:08:15.360 --> 00:08:26.720 I would say that's not necessarily true, but they are intimately intertwined with the image because they are the first expressions of what it means to be made in God's image. 00:08:27.439 --> 00:08:28.639 This is who we were. 00:08:29.360 --> 00:08:31.040 This is what we were meant for. 00:08:31.680 --> 00:08:33.679 This is the world as God designed it. 00:08:34.399 --> 00:08:39.200 Ordered, fruitful, harmonious, and good. 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:42.639 Until. 00:08:44.399 --> 00:08:45.919 Genesis chapter 3. 00:08:46.159 --> 00:08:48.240 So let's just go a page or two over. 00:08:50.639 --> 00:08:55.759 And there, in verse 1, we see the moment of fracture. 00:08:57.679 --> 00:09:02.960 Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. 00:09:03.759 --> 00:09:10.879 He said to the woman, Did God really say, You can't eat from any tree in the garden? 00:09:11.840 --> 00:09:23.919 And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat the fruit of the tree in the garden, but about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die. 00:09:26.159 --> 00:09:29.600 No, you will not certainly die, the serpent said to the woman. 00:09:30.080 --> 00:09:38.559 In fact, God knows that when you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. 00:09:39.519 --> 00:09:47.440 The woman saw that the tree was good, good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. 00:09:48.240 --> 00:09:51.120 So she took some of its fruit and ate it. 00:09:51.919 --> 00:09:57.440 And she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 00:09:57.919 --> 00:10:02.559 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked. 00:10:03.200 --> 00:10:07.519 So they sewed fig leaves together and made covering for themselves. 00:10:08.639 --> 00:10:15.840 If Genesis 1 shows us what the world was meant to be, Genesis chapter 3 shows us what the world is. 00:10:17.200 --> 00:10:20.480 And the shift between the two is not gradual, is it? 00:10:21.279 --> 00:10:30.080 It is sudden, immediate, catastrophic, and the mirror of God's image cracks. 00:10:31.600 --> 00:10:33.360 Let's take a look at this passage. 00:10:33.519 --> 00:10:42.799 The serpent enters into the garden, and he enters not with blazing force, and he doesn't enter with accusations, he enters with subtlety. 00:10:43.600 --> 00:10:46.080 He enters in with a question. 00:10:47.519 --> 00:10:51.039 And his question is a deceitful question. 00:10:51.759 --> 00:10:57.840 It isn't a direct denial of God at first, but it comes with a distortion. 00:10:59.759 --> 00:11:02.639 Did God really say? 00:11:04.720 --> 00:11:14.960 And that question was framed in order to provoke and to implant suspicion into Eve and Adam's heart. 00:11:16.879 --> 00:11:24.399 He was trying to make them think that maybe God is just a bit too restrictive. 00:11:25.519 --> 00:11:30.480 Maybe his generosity is really too small. 00:11:31.360 --> 00:11:35.759 Maybe his goodness needs to be questioned. 00:11:36.960 --> 00:11:43.600 Perhaps he is withholding the best and the good from us. 00:11:44.799 --> 00:11:46.960 But notice what he attacks. 00:11:47.440 --> 00:11:49.039 He attacks God's word. 00:11:50.799 --> 00:11:55.039 Because if you can distort God's word, you're going to distort his character. 00:11:55.279 --> 00:12:03.600 And if you can distort God's character, you're going to distort the arc of human destiny and dignity. 00:12:05.360 --> 00:12:16.559 And so he uses a strategy he's still using today to question the goodness and to question the rightness of God. 00:12:18.480 --> 00:12:20.000 And Eve listens. 00:12:20.559 --> 00:12:25.200 And so does Adam, who's standing there beside her silently. 00:12:25.919 --> 00:12:31.279 And in the middle of that silence, something grows. 00:12:32.960 --> 00:12:36.480 The desire to be like God. 00:12:37.440 --> 00:12:45.600 Not in the way that they were created to be, but in the way that the serpent was alluding to and suggesting. 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:53.120 That they could be God by being self-sufficient, that they could be like God by being independent. 00:12:53.679 --> 00:12:57.200 That they could be like God by being self-ruling. 00:12:57.679 --> 00:13:04.799 That they could be like God by designating for themselves what is right and what is good. 00:13:05.759 --> 00:13:09.440 That they could be the arbitrators of those things. 00:13:10.559 --> 00:13:19.759 And so the lure of defining what is right and what is good draws them toward disobedience. 00:13:22.320 --> 00:13:23.600 And they eat. 00:13:24.399 --> 00:13:31.360 And in that moment, the image is fractured, the connection breaks. 00:13:31.840 --> 00:13:35.039 Not because God has moved, but because we have. 00:13:36.480 --> 00:13:42.240 Sin is not simply breaking a rule, and many of us think that way. 00:13:42.799 --> 00:13:48.480 Sin is breaking a relationship because at its heart it's rebellion. 00:13:50.320 --> 00:13:55.840 And here's the creature indicating that it wants to be independent of the Creator. 00:13:56.879 --> 00:14:02.000 Here is the image bearer rejecting the one whose image it bears. 00:14:03.440 --> 00:14:10.080 And so that fruit taken, the bite made, and the world has never been the same since. 00:14:12.960 --> 00:14:14.320 But what was fracture? 00:14:15.039 --> 00:14:17.039 That's the question we want to ask ourselves. 00:14:17.679 --> 00:14:25.039 We've seen the beauty, we've witnessed the fracture, but what actually broke within us? 00:14:25.600 --> 00:14:30.480 When Adam and Eve turned from God, the image of humanity did not disappear. 00:14:31.039 --> 00:14:39.279 There are two key verses that tell us that the image of God still carries forward with relationship to humanity. 00:14:39.840 --> 00:15:03.200 In Genesis chapter 9, after the flood, in which God is speaking about human government and the responsibilities that we have of keeping an ordered society, talks about those who would take advantage of the weak and the vulnerable, and says that they, if they kill humanity, must themselves forfeit their life. 00:15:03.440 --> 00:15:03.919 Why? 00:15:04.879 --> 00:15:09.679 For God made humans in his own image. 00:15:09.840 --> 00:15:18.960 There is something grand and glorious and distinct even in fallen humanity after the flood. 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:27.679 To kill a person is to deface the image of God. 00:15:28.639 --> 00:15:34.320 And so a person forfeits the right to live on God's earth. 00:15:35.360 --> 00:15:37.759 James says the same thing. 00:15:38.480 --> 00:15:46.320 He reminds us that we can use our tongue to bless God and at the same time curse people. 00:15:47.600 --> 00:15:58.080 And the contradiction of that he intensifies by saying this we curse people who are made in God's likeness. 00:15:59.039 --> 00:16:04.240 How can we bless God and curse his image in humanity at the same time? 00:16:04.559 --> 00:16:06.480 How can we be so contradictory? 00:16:07.440 --> 00:16:10.240 Again, the image remains. 00:16:11.600 --> 00:16:15.120 But while the image remains, what have we lost? 00:16:15.919 --> 00:16:18.320 Well, the first thing that we've lost is a connection. 00:16:19.279 --> 00:16:24.799 That bond of humanity to God, that seal of love and trust. 00:16:25.360 --> 00:16:30.639 It's now marked by suspicion and intentional distancing. 00:16:31.679 --> 00:16:38.000 The relationship that once brought us joy, as we'll see in a few minutes, now brings only fear. 00:16:39.440 --> 00:16:50.960 The God who walked in the cool of the garden or in the garden in the cool of the day is the God we now run from and hide behind trees and leaves. 00:16:52.000 --> 00:17:00.399 And where that connection is broken, that means our reflection of him is also distorted because we are not seeing him as we used to. 00:17:00.559 --> 00:17:10.880 We're running from him, and our understanding of him is distorted, and therefore our reflection of him is likewise distorted by the sin that we've committed. 00:17:13.039 --> 00:17:25.359 And so those things of reason and righteousness and rulership and relationship are all aspects of what has happened in the fractured image. 00:17:25.680 --> 00:17:29.039 Let's take them each in turn, and we'll take a short look at them. 00:17:29.279 --> 00:17:31.359 Take a look at chapter 3 and verse 7. 00:17:31.599 --> 00:17:36.720 And we see, first of all, distorted reason, distorted reason. 00:17:39.599 --> 00:17:43.359 Created with the capacity to reason to think God's thoughts after him. 00:17:44.079 --> 00:17:48.319 Now in the fall, our thinking is clouded and our understanding is darkened. 00:17:48.480 --> 00:17:55.599 And Genesis says in chapter 3 and verse 7, the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked. 00:17:57.440 --> 00:18:08.640 The first thing that Adam and Eve understand is not enlightenment after the disobedience of eating, but confusion and shame. 00:18:10.319 --> 00:18:17.839 Their eyes are opened, yes, but not the way the serpent promised. 00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:23.279 Their eyes are opened to shame. 00:18:24.319 --> 00:18:27.599 Their eyes are opened to fear. 00:18:28.960 --> 00:18:32.880 Clarity and wisdom are not what they received. 00:18:33.680 --> 00:18:39.920 Their perception is now clouded, and their understanding is now turned inward. 00:18:40.799 --> 00:18:45.680 And what was once innocence now feels like shameful exposure. 00:18:47.680 --> 00:18:58.640 Ephesians 4 in verse 17 says this that our thoughts have become futile because our understanding is darkened through the hardness of our hearts. 00:18:59.599 --> 00:19:05.440 We still are reasoning people, but our reasoning has been affected by the fall. 00:19:06.480 --> 00:19:22.160 Paul says in Romans 1 in verse 18 that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who, by their unrighteousness, suppress the truth. 00:19:23.359 --> 00:19:28.960 Truth is there, truth wants to grow and to flourish, and what do we do? 00:19:29.119 --> 00:19:37.759 We try to get our hands over the top of it and shove it back down because we don't want to deal with the truth. 00:19:39.039 --> 00:19:40.960 Our reasoning is corrupted. 00:19:42.559 --> 00:19:45.119 Think about Pharaoh as an example. 00:19:46.480 --> 00:19:51.599 There, Moses comes to him, makes an appeal to him that should be reasonable. 00:19:51.920 --> 00:20:00.000 He refuses in his pride, and in order to break that pride, God brings plague after plague after plague after plague. 00:20:01.839 --> 00:20:13.279 And as he watches those plagues come and go and come and go, Moses says that instead of it opening up his heart, it just made his heart harder. 00:20:15.519 --> 00:20:17.839 Evidence didn't melt his heart. 00:20:18.799 --> 00:20:24.480 Evidence actually calcified and exposed his heart. 00:20:25.359 --> 00:20:29.279 Sometimes we think that the problem of humanity is a lack of information. 00:20:29.680 --> 00:20:30.799 That is not true. 00:20:31.599 --> 00:20:38.160 It's not a lack of information, it's a will that refuses the illumination that's there. 00:20:39.039 --> 00:20:45.519 The Bible tells us in Psalm 19 that the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork. 00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:49.519 Day after day they spread forth their speech. 00:20:49.680 --> 00:20:53.759 There's not a language on earth in which their voice is not heard. 00:20:54.559 --> 00:20:55.920 We're inexcusable. 00:20:56.880 --> 00:20:59.200 Our reasoning doesn't need information. 00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.880 Our reasoning needs to be restored to the way God made it. 00:21:06.720 --> 00:21:08.319 We see the pattern in ourselves. 00:21:08.480 --> 00:21:12.000 We know what is right and we choose not to do it. 00:21:12.559 --> 00:21:16.240 We hear God's word and we walk away unchanged. 00:21:17.759 --> 00:21:19.759 This is why we misjudge ourselves. 00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:23.279 This is why we rationalize what is sinful. 00:21:23.599 --> 00:21:28.079 This is why we can be surrounded by truth and still blind to it. 00:21:28.559 --> 00:21:30.319 Because our reasoning is corrupted. 00:21:31.680 --> 00:21:36.880 And this is why salvation is more than just information for us. 00:21:37.759 --> 00:21:45.839 It is meant to give us a transformation of our inward parts so that we might have God given clarity once again. 00:21:46.960 --> 00:21:53.039 Now, secondly, our distorted righteousness, not just distorted reason, but distorted righteousness. 00:21:53.839 --> 00:21:56.240 Before the fall, righteousness was natural. 00:21:57.039 --> 00:21:59.680 We are simply living in alignment. 00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:02.480 With God's character. 00:22:03.359 --> 00:22:09.200 God, in all of his fullness and all of his goodness, is there in handfuls. 00:22:09.519 --> 00:22:13.119 Everything you want to eat, you can eat. 00:22:13.920 --> 00:22:15.680 All of it is given for you. 00:22:16.480 --> 00:22:18.240 Barring one thing. 00:22:19.519 --> 00:22:22.000 But now righteousness feels foreign. 00:22:23.039 --> 00:22:24.960 And shame enters our story. 00:22:25.599 --> 00:22:26.880 Look at verse 7 again. 00:22:27.759 --> 00:22:33.359 They sowed fig leaves and made coverings for themselves. 00:22:34.799 --> 00:22:40.079 They hide from one another, they hide from God, and they're hiding from each other. 00:22:41.839 --> 00:22:46.799 And God calls to Adam, and in verse 10, he says, I was afraid because I was naked. 00:22:47.279 --> 00:22:48.079 So I hid. 00:22:51.920 --> 00:22:58.480 Isaiah 64 and verse 6 said, All our righteousnesses are like polluted garments. 00:23:00.319 --> 00:23:05.599 Our best efforts are stained with self-interest and self-protection. 00:23:06.720 --> 00:23:19.359 In 1 Samuel chapter 15, we're told the story of Saul, and he is there disobeying God's commands, and yet blatantly says these words. 00:23:23.759 --> 00:23:38.799 While the sheep are bleeding in the background, he can't see his sin because he's so busy trying to defend himself and to self-justify his actions. 00:23:41.279 --> 00:23:51.359 And so we find our righteousness, moving from fellowship to fear, from honesty to hiding. 00:23:53.119 --> 00:23:59.599 And we are now filled with self-protection, our self-fulfillment and pride. 00:24:01.599 --> 00:24:06.720 The fracture means that we don't not that we don't ever do anything good. 00:24:07.599 --> 00:24:15.279 It's just that everything that we do that might be good or beneficial is bent the wrong way. 00:24:20.640 --> 00:24:23.039 We do good and we want the control. 00:24:23.759 --> 00:24:28.319 We do good and we want to call ourselves righteous on our terms. 00:24:31.039 --> 00:24:35.920 And this is why shame clings to us, because we can never get away from it. 00:24:36.160 --> 00:24:42.319 We realize that it's just not enough as much as we try to tell ourselves it actually is. 00:24:44.160 --> 00:24:59.599 And so we need a righteousness, not one that we can produce, but one like we see in the book of Genesis, a covering to cover those things that we can't when we sow our own leaves together. 00:25:00.240 --> 00:25:08.160 And that leads us to the third element of what is fractured, that is our distorted rulership, our distorted rulership. 00:25:08.799 --> 00:25:11.119 Take a look at verse 17 of chapter 3. 00:25:12.880 --> 00:25:16.000 Before the fall, our dominion was wise and careful. 00:25:16.960 --> 00:25:18.960 We were stewards of God's creation. 00:25:19.839 --> 00:25:28.160 We were reflecting God's person through our attentiveness, our protective and fruitful goodness in relationship to the created world. 00:25:28.960 --> 00:25:34.319 But now God says to Adam, the ground is cursed because of you. 00:25:35.119 --> 00:25:39.119 It will produce thorns and thistles for you. 00:25:40.240 --> 00:25:46.160 And here in Genesis chapter 3, we see the ground itself groaning under our failed stewardship. 00:25:46.880 --> 00:25:53.680 And Romans chapter 8 tells us that the creation was subjected to futility because of our rebellion. 00:25:54.720 --> 00:25:59.519 Now work is still a calling, but now it is marked by frustration. 00:26:00.319 --> 00:26:02.079 Our rulership is tainted. 00:26:03.039 --> 00:26:10.720 The world that once responded to our humanity's touch now resists anything that we do. 00:26:12.640 --> 00:26:14.720 Our rulership now is a struggle. 00:26:15.519 --> 00:26:18.000 Our responsibilities become toil. 00:26:18.799 --> 00:26:23.359 Our stewardship is really trying to eke out mere survival. 00:26:26.319 --> 00:26:34.079 And if we do enter into stewardship, we often do in one or two ways, either through exploitation or abdication. 00:26:34.720 --> 00:26:41.599 We either overdo our rulership or refuse to exercise our stewardship. 00:26:42.799 --> 00:26:46.000 We grasp for control or we abandon responsibility. 00:27:03.599 --> 00:27:06.720 Solomon begins his rule with wisdom and justice. 00:27:06.960 --> 00:27:09.440 He's ruling as a shepherd king. 00:27:09.920 --> 00:27:14.559 But as his heart drifts, so does his rule, and his stewardship becomes self-indulgence. 00:27:15.279 --> 00:27:24.079 And the kingdom fractures under the weight of that excess when the rulers rule for themselves and the people suffer. 00:27:25.119 --> 00:27:27.279 And we see the pattern in our own hearts. 00:27:28.160 --> 00:27:33.039 Work becomes for us a place to prove ourselves rather than a place to serve others. 00:27:33.279 --> 00:27:37.839 Our leadership becomes a means of control rather than an avenue of care. 00:27:40.079 --> 00:27:47.599 Or we might, as some do, shrink back from responsibilities because it just seems too costly to step into it. 00:27:48.799 --> 00:27:52.000 And this is why the things that we do feel frustrating. 00:27:52.799 --> 00:27:55.680 This is why our efforts feel fruitless. 00:27:55.920 --> 00:28:04.400 This is why we swing between over control or disengagement, because there's something broken and fractured within us. 00:28:04.880 --> 00:28:13.759 Not just our righteousness, but our rulership is broken. 00:28:15.519 --> 00:28:21.920 And this is why Christ's restoration means that we're not just forgiven people, but we need to be renewed people. 00:28:23.359 --> 00:28:28.559 And that leads us to our last one, the distortion of our relationships. 00:28:29.359 --> 00:28:31.119 Think about how we were made. 00:28:31.599 --> 00:28:53.279 Made by God with His image on us, responding to Him, fellowshipping with Him in the evening, with the winds beginning to pick up, there with one another, without any shame, united with one heart, harmony with God, harmony with one another, harmony with all creation. 00:28:56.720 --> 00:29:02.880 But the unity of Genesis 1 and 2 gives way to the blame of chapter 3. 00:29:03.599 --> 00:29:05.039 Take a look at verse 12. 00:29:06.319 --> 00:29:12.000 God asks Adam what happened, and Adam replies, The woman you gave to me. 00:29:13.200 --> 00:29:18.160 Maybe I put the emphasis this way the woman you gave to me. 00:29:20.079 --> 00:29:23.759 She gave me some fruit, and I did eat. 00:29:30.480 --> 00:29:37.279 And God says to Eve, your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you. 00:29:37.680 --> 00:29:41.039 Now there's a lot of ways to look at what that means. 00:29:41.599 --> 00:29:56.400 But one thing we can say for certainty is that a relationship that was meant to be one of unity and harmony and compatibility has now become one of tension and conflict and power struggle. 00:29:58.559 --> 00:30:01.920 Our love is still tangled with self-interest. 00:30:02.400 --> 00:30:06.799 And unity is now given away to blame and conflict. 00:30:07.359 --> 00:30:16.400 And the people that we were meant to cherish now become people that we use, or we avoid, or we accuse. 00:30:19.440 --> 00:30:25.920 Genesis 4.8, the fracture shows up immediately, brother against brother, murder on earth. 00:30:26.240 --> 00:30:33.039 James chapter 4 asks us this question What is the source of wars and fightings among you? 00:30:33.279 --> 00:30:37.279 Do they not come from the passions that wage war within you? 00:30:39.200 --> 00:30:44.319 James is telling us that the problem is not out there, the war is in here. 00:30:45.599 --> 00:30:50.240 It's a war that's spilling from within ourselves outward. 00:30:51.359 --> 00:31:00.079 And this is why marriage strains and friendships fracture, and churches divide, and families are left wounded. 00:31:02.640 --> 00:31:09.839 And so the gospel not only has to reconcile us to God, it's meant to reconcile us to one another. 00:31:12.720 --> 00:31:18.720 It heals the war within us, so God can heal the wars between us. 00:31:20.240 --> 00:31:30.799 And so, to sum all of this up, this moment of fracture has had a reverberation that lasts until our very day in all of these places. 00:31:31.440 --> 00:31:34.400 The image remains, but every part of it is marred. 00:31:34.960 --> 00:31:39.200 The capacities remain, but every one of them is bent the wrong way. 00:31:39.440 --> 00:31:44.799 Our responsibilities remain, but they're carried out in a way that distorts God's good design. 00:31:46.400 --> 00:31:48.559 This is the tragedy of the fall. 00:31:49.680 --> 00:31:53.920 And this is why we live in this world and none of it seems to make sense. 00:31:54.240 --> 00:32:00.240 Why our lives never seem to be utterly fulfilled, why the ache won't go away. 00:32:02.799 --> 00:32:05.440 Let me just mention the consequences very briefly. 00:32:06.640 --> 00:32:15.599 Genesis chapter 3 and verses 17 and 18, God speaks about this world and he says, the ground is cursed because of you. 00:32:16.160 --> 00:32:19.759 It produces thorns and thistles for you. 00:32:20.720 --> 00:32:24.319 Now, why is the earth subjected to these things? 00:32:25.119 --> 00:32:29.039 Well, it was from the ground that Adam was made. 00:32:29.279 --> 00:32:38.559 Out of the dust of the earth he was formed and shaped, and then placed into the garden to cultivate that very ground. 00:32:38.960 --> 00:32:45.039 And so when he turned from God, this dirt corrupted the rest of the dirt. 00:32:45.440 --> 00:32:52.240 And the world itself fell under this futility in which it still continues. 00:32:52.640 --> 00:32:54.960 It's affected by that breach. 00:32:55.599 --> 00:33:00.640 The soil that responded to humanity's care now resists our touch. 00:33:02.400 --> 00:33:04.720 Paul talks about this in Romans 8. 00:33:05.279 --> 00:33:13.359 He says, This, the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it. 00:33:16.559 --> 00:33:19.039 But there's something that I want to share with us. 00:33:19.920 --> 00:33:28.240 It says, We know in Romans 8, it says, we know the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now. 00:33:28.480 --> 00:33:30.880 And there's two things to draw out of that verse. 00:33:31.039 --> 00:33:33.119 One is creation groans. 00:33:33.839 --> 00:33:35.119 The world groans. 00:33:35.759 --> 00:33:36.480 We groan. 00:33:37.759 --> 00:33:47.839 We hear it in the brokenness of our systems, in the fragility of our bodies, in the instability of our world, in the ache of our hearts. 00:33:48.720 --> 00:33:56.640 I watched this video some weeks ago of a grandfather with his uh, I think a grandson, I think it was his grandson. 00:33:57.759 --> 00:34:05.920 And uh his grandson was walking around the house going, oh, oof, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. 00:34:06.640 --> 00:34:18.320 And the grandfather's just looking at the grandson, going, Why is he going, oh, oof, and then he caught himself getting out of the chair and then moving across the kitchen. 00:34:18.559 --> 00:34:18.960 Oof. 00:34:19.360 --> 00:34:26.400 And the grandson was just mocking his grandfather or mimicking his grandfather by making the noises that his grandfather was making. 00:34:26.719 --> 00:34:33.920 He the grandfather felt the ache of the bull the bones, but the grandson simply said what his grandfather was doing. 00:34:35.360 --> 00:34:36.800 We feel that groaning. 00:34:38.559 --> 00:34:43.039 But I want you to catch something that Paul says here that's easily overlooked. 00:34:44.159 --> 00:34:46.000 Listen again to this verse. 00:34:46.320 --> 00:34:52.960 The whole creation has been growing together with labor pains until now. 00:34:54.719 --> 00:34:56.880 Isn't that an interesting phrase? 00:34:58.000 --> 00:34:59.440 Labor pains. 00:35:00.159 --> 00:35:04.800 Not death throes, labor pains. 00:35:06.800 --> 00:35:11.760 Labor pains are real, and I've been told and I've seen that they're intense. 00:35:15.360 --> 00:35:16.880 They're also unavoidable. 00:35:17.840 --> 00:35:19.920 But what is it about a labor pain? 00:35:20.800 --> 00:35:22.960 It's pointing to something. 00:35:23.679 --> 00:35:24.239 Right? 00:35:24.800 --> 00:35:28.000 A labor pain is anticipating something. 00:35:28.239 --> 00:35:32.719 A labor pain is a signal that something is coming. 00:35:34.960 --> 00:35:44.000 And Paul picks that up and says that this creation is groaning and travailing in labor pains until now. 00:35:45.199 --> 00:35:46.480 What is it saying? 00:35:48.079 --> 00:35:56.639 The creation is longing for the better day, that creation is waiting for the day of restoration. 00:35:58.159 --> 00:36:05.679 The creation is aching for the moment when the sons and daughters of God are brought into full glory. 00:36:06.880 --> 00:36:10.960 And on that day they will groan no more. 00:36:11.760 --> 00:36:14.960 Because what is coming will have been realized. 00:36:17.039 --> 00:36:18.880 Why does the world groan? 00:36:19.519 --> 00:36:22.320 It groans because it remembers Eden. 00:36:23.199 --> 00:36:24.960 Why does the world groan? 00:36:25.360 --> 00:36:30.480 Because it's longing for Eden's return, if I can put it that way. 00:36:31.599 --> 00:36:36.000 And this is the thread of hope that I want to leave us with. 00:36:36.880 --> 00:36:39.119 Look at Genesis 3 again. 00:36:40.559 --> 00:36:42.000 In verse 8. 00:36:43.519 --> 00:36:51.039 The man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze. 00:36:51.679 --> 00:36:54.239 What an astonishing comment this is. 00:36:55.199 --> 00:37:06.880 Here is humanity fallen, rebellious, disobedient, hiding, humanity ashamed, humanity running away. 00:37:08.559 --> 00:37:17.599 And God comes walking toward them, just like he did the day before. 00:37:20.559 --> 00:37:34.400 He doesn't storm into the garden, he doesn't shout from a distance, he comes walking, seeking, pursuing, initiating, asking. 00:37:34.719 --> 00:37:39.679 Verse nine, Adam, where are you? 00:37:42.000 --> 00:37:47.360 God's not lacking the information of where Adam is at. 00:37:49.119 --> 00:37:54.719 He's causing Adam to reflect upon himself and where he's at. 00:37:55.760 --> 00:37:57.280 Adam, where are you? 00:37:59.840 --> 00:38:03.840 He's drawing Adam out of hiding with this question. 00:38:04.480 --> 00:38:07.760 He's inviting Adam toward confession. 00:38:08.880 --> 00:38:14.880 He is eliciting from Adam honesty about what's happened. 00:38:15.599 --> 00:38:22.639 He is in some ways saying, I still want to relate with you. 00:38:25.760 --> 00:38:33.679 Adam answers sadly in verse 10, I was afraid and I hid myself. 00:38:36.079 --> 00:38:44.559 Again, fear and shame and hiding have replaced fellowship and innocence and communion. 00:38:45.920 --> 00:38:50.000 But even here, God doesn't abandon him. 00:38:51.039 --> 00:39:00.079 Yes, he names the consequences, and yes, he speaks of judgment, but woven into these statements is a promise. 00:39:00.800 --> 00:39:11.039 A promise that is so profound that theologians call it the Proto-Uangelian, the first gospel message. 00:39:13.119 --> 00:39:24.079 God says to the serpent in verse 15, I will put hostility between you and the woman, between the offspring, your offspring and her offspring. 00:39:25.039 --> 00:39:28.800 He will strike your head and you will strike his heel. 00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:40.000 Right there, right in the middle of our ruin, right in the middle of our shame, right in the middle of our hiding, God promises a deliverer. 00:39:41.599 --> 00:40:01.760 He promises that someone is going to be born of a woman, that someone's going to enter the human story, that someone's going to confront our enemy, someone who is going to be wounded himself, but ultimately will crush the head of the things that brought us this shame and this destruction. 00:40:03.760 --> 00:40:05.519 Yes, the fracture is real. 00:40:06.480 --> 00:40:13.280 Yes, the consequences are real, but God's commitment still is real. 00:40:14.239 --> 00:40:20.400 He doesn't walk away from his image-bearers, and he doesn't abandon the world that he made. 00:40:21.440 --> 00:40:25.760 And he doesn't leave the story in the hands of the serpent. 00:40:28.320 --> 00:40:35.360 For the first time, hope enters into this world at the very same moment that sin does. 00:40:36.719 --> 00:40:39.760 And that hope is what we're going to carry into next week. 00:40:40.559 --> 00:40:44.239 Because we're going to look at next week the echoes of Eden. 00:40:46.320 --> 00:40:51.119 But when we step back from Genesis 3, we see this world as we know it. 00:40:51.519 --> 00:40:54.079 That's uncomfortably familiar to us all. 00:40:54.960 --> 00:41:05.039 We see in Genesis 3 the things that we feel within our own hearts, hiding and fear, and blame and ache and self-justification. 00:41:07.760 --> 00:41:12.000 These things are woven into the world that we inhabit and the lives that we live. 00:41:12.880 --> 00:41:18.800 It's a fracture that's not just a theological category for us, it's a human experience. 00:41:19.440 --> 00:41:21.039 It's our experience. 00:41:21.679 --> 00:41:28.000 And yet, in the middle of that brokenness, Scripture refuses to let the story end in despair. 00:41:32.159 --> 00:41:39.199 It's brief, but it leaves the story open for something different. 00:41:39.760 --> 00:41:50.639 It tells us that God hasn't withdrawn, that He hasn't left us, that He is planting a seed of hope that we can look forward to. 00:41:51.519 --> 00:42:00.159 And so we end this evening, not with an understanding of that resolution, but with a sense of quiet anticipation of it. 00:42:01.199 --> 00:42:06.000 Because we still feel the pain and the ache of the fall. 00:42:07.760 --> 00:42:13.760 We still know it's real, but we also know that our lives are not meaningless and empty. 00:42:15.119 --> 00:42:20.400 We know that the longings rise up within us, but they're no accident. 00:42:21.760 --> 00:42:36.880 That the groanings that we feel and the groanings that creation sounds are not the sounds of a world that's completely unraveled, but of a world and a humanity that's waiting still for something better. 00:42:38.079 --> 00:42:47.199 And so this evening, I'd like for us all to appreciate better that there's a reason why we sense life to be different than we think it ought to be. 00:42:47.599 --> 00:42:53.760 There's a reason why we feel a pull toward the good and the wholesome, even if we don't do it. 00:42:54.719 --> 00:43:03.119 That there's a reason why the fractures in our relationships and the futility of our work trouble us. 00:43:04.320 --> 00:43:09.199 Because those are all longings, not of weakness, but of memory. 00:43:10.800 --> 00:43:22.960 Even though we've never been to Eden, we remember it and we feel it because we want it to come back so we can actually experience it. 00:43:24.079 --> 00:43:34.559 The reminders to us that our story began in beauty, and we have a God who speaks promise that one day it'll be beautiful again. 00:43:35.840 --> 00:43:36.639 Let's pray. 00:43:41.840 --> 00:43:52.159 Father, we thank you that we have been given the lines of this story far better than Adam and Eve received it on that day. 00:43:54.719 --> 00:43:57.519 We know it captured their hearts. 00:43:58.400 --> 00:43:59.760 We know that they longed for. 00:44:00.159 --> 00:44:02.159 It to be realized in third time. 00:44:03.440 --> 00:44:21.599 For when that first child was born, Eve cried out, I've received a child, the Lord, thinking perhaps that that first one that was born would be that very deliverer that you spoke about. 00:44:22.880 --> 00:44:40.559 And here we are, thousands of years later, knowing that in the fullness of time, made of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those that are under the curse of the law, Jesus Christ is come. 00:44:41.599 --> 00:44:50.960 And we know that your word tells us that this one will crush the serpent's head under our feet shortly. 00:44:52.159 --> 00:45:07.840 And so, Father, with a better understanding of the story as it unfolds, with still the ache of fulfillment still residing within us, we cry out, even so come, Lord Jesus. 00:45:08.719 --> 00:45:12.480 Bring these days of woe to an end. 00:45:12.880 --> 00:45:23.920 And may those labor pains that creation groans with produce the fullness of eternal life in the manifestation of the children of God. 00:45:24.320 --> 00:45:26.480 And we pray this in Christ's name. 00:45:26.800 --> 00:45:27.440 Amen.