The First Moment of Faith (LIVE)

What if the first story of human failure is also the first story of tender mercy? We open with a small moment of joy—a dad diving into a leaf pile with his kids—and use it to reframe Genesis 3 as a living, present word. The fall is real, the sorrow is real, and yet the promises are just as real: a bruised heel, a crushed head, and a God who covers shame with His own hands. This isn’t distant theology; it’s the pattern of grace that breaks into our daily exhaustion, fear, and control.

Together we unpack the serpent’s strategy, the weight of the curses, and the startling hope embedded in God’s sentences. Adam naming his wife Eve becomes a bold act of trust: believing that life will spring from the very place death entered. Then comes one of Scripture’s most intimate scenes—God crafting coats of skin, implying sacrifice and foreshadowing a better covering. The gate to the tree of life closes, not as punishment alone, but as mercy that makes room for redemption. What begins in Eden arcs forward to Mary’s yes, the Spirit’s miracle, and Christ, “made of a woman,” who carries no inherited guilt and offers a true and final covering.

We connect these ancient moments to our present lives—where we stitch fig leaves of excuses, numbness, and addiction, and where the voice of Jesus interrupts with life. Law tells the truth about our condition, and grace meets us with a cross that speaks a better word. If you’re weary, angry, or lost, you’ll hear a straightforward invitation to trust: step out from hiding, let the promise hold you, and receive the covering you cannot make for yourself. If this message stirs you, subscribe for more, share it with someone who needs hope, and leave a review to help others find their way to this story of curse, promise, and redeeming love.

Transcript

Everyday Joy And Seeing God

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Amen, Lord. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Blessing to gather in tonight, amen. Lord. Those who are right here today, and those who are around the world, we're glad to have you with us. Then I really hope you have time to just see God every day in the practicals. I hope you have a testimony today. Many, many testimonies. And you might just think it's a normal day. That's yeah, I can share one of mine, you know. You can get done driving eight or nine hours a day. And did that today. And yeah, the ironic thing about driving so long is you have to drive home afterwards. And um and get home and um there's my wife outside and the three little girls. And they're all jumping up and down and you know, cheering and everything like that. And uh and I blow the horn and that drives the oldest one nuts. I mean, she's buy the book, buy the book, buy the book. The horn's too loud. You don't want to disturb the neighbors. The other two are like, yeah, the horn, you know. Yeah, the horn. And um, but then we run back behind, and they made this big leaf pile. And you know, daddy, come and jump in the leaf pile with us. And yeah, we just had a time in that leaf pile. Fifteen minutes or so. Just having the time in the leaf pile. And that's that was the Lord. Yes, and no matter what's what's going on, and you know, I know a little bit about folks in here, um, I know a little bit about you know some folks outside of here too. Um, but no matter what's going on, every single day, have that testimony. No matter how tired you are, no matter how sick you are, no matter how um difficult your situation might be, because that's that's something that the enemy will do. He'll he'll he'll get you to focus on the pain. He'll get you to focus on what you think to be the problem, and you'll completely miss jumping in the leaf pile with your three little girls. And then your wife, you know, she you know, we all get in, you know, Nestor and had the song and everything and stuff like that. But you you completely miss that if all you do is focus on uh the issue, or if all you do is uh focus, because we're gonna be in Genesis, and man, you know, sometimes folks just see it as it's not this practical book, it's too far away, it's too far back. But um man, I want you to see yourself in Genesis, because in the book of Genesis, we've got this little picture of why the world is the way it is, and what God has done, and who you are, why you are the way you are. It's in Genesis, and you need to see it in every day, uh, and you need to see God in every day, not just some distant thing, but he's the God who wants you to run and jump and play in the leaf pile sometimes, amen. Um, he's the God who doesn't want you to complain about the snow, but you know, man, we can just we can go have a time in the snow. Um, he's you know, we can go have a time in the heat. We can go have a time, no matter what's going on. And and you need that. And so, my friend, um uh come to Genesis 3, and and we'll start in verse 14. And I I titled this message, and you know, I think the guy got it. Um, but you know, I titled this message, The First Moment of Faith. The first moment of faith. Um, because it's really easy just to, you know, I've got it right here in my Bible. It says the curse. You know, right, you know, right at the beginning of this. You know, big letters, the curse. That's not all that was going on, though. Um because Genesis 3, um, we've uh we've got to look at the you know, kind of the backstory is everything was good. God had the you know had the whole creative process, um, you know, he was speaking and speaking and speaking and speaking, and he forms man. And then from man he forms the woman, and everything is good. God said everything was good. And everything was life, everything was life, everything was life. Uh the man, you know, he said, you know, go and be fruitful and multiply and subdue the earth, you know, multiply, subdue the earth, have dominion over the earth. I made you in my image, and I saw before I said it was good. The final time I said, Well, wait a minute, this is not good. You know, the first time God said something was not good, Adam was alone, it wasn't done yet. And God said, It is not good that man should be alone. And so he takes the rib, and there's six or seven messages there, um, but he takes the rib and he forms woman. And Adam is this is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, and you know, and she's called woman, and hallelujah, and glory. And then, you know, famously we have the serpent. And Satan, you know, obviously Lucifer has fallen by this point, and he said, and and look how Satan struck. Uh flip back to Genesis 2. Um actually right at the beginning of 3. Um, yeah, 3-1. I mean, we can skip right through it here. You know, the serpent. He struck he struck very subtly, very, very subtle way. Um, he said to the woman, woman said to him, um, you know, he said to the woman, um, the woman said to him, uh he never uh he he he talked to the woman. Satan struck at the neck, and the neck fell. But you know what else fell? The head. The head fell after the neck. And my friend, um, well, you know, when the devil comes in, he comes in with cleverness. Um, if the devil wants to strike at a man, and you see it a lot, he'll strike at the woman because that wife has more influence over that man than any other human being alive, because the two become one flesh, and so if you want to strike at a man, strike at his wife, and so that's what the devil did, and he attacks in this very, very subtle way, and they fall. Um, you know, the woman ate, and then the man ate. And I believe because it was the man's love for the woman, it was the man's desire to cover the woman. Satan knew this, having been built originally as a cherub who covers. And so he attacked out of his fallen nature, knowing that this man who had been made in the image of God, he struck at the man who had been made in the image of God. And that's how he did it, because he knew that that man would be driven to cover that woman. And so they both fell. And death passes upon the entire human race at that point. At that one point in time, when the head fell, death passed upon us all. Down to the present moment, down to yourself. And then we have Genesis 3 14. And the Lord God starts by turning to the serpent. And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field. Upon thy belly thou shalt go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of my life, all the days of thy life. He turns first to the serpent. You know, and the serpent was not the way we see snakes today, things were a little bit different then. Um now the serpent is cursed above all cattle. But then he continues. So we have a curse, and now we have a promise. This is what I want you to see. Interwoven in these verses, there are curses and there are promises. Curses and promises, curses and promises. Verse 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman. And between, you know, looking all the way down through history, thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise your head. You struck at the head. Your head will be struck. You struck at Adam. And in striking at Adam, you struck at God. Satan, your head will be struck by her seed. You know, if the you know, just if they're all standing here, your head will be struck by her seed. Hallelujah. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. Long story short, the the relationship that they enjoyed so naturally, that became unnatural. The woman's place, um you see, um, it wasn't a consequence of sin that you know, wives submit to your husbands. That was not a consequence of the curse. That was the original design. The curse, the woman would have sorrow. Um, the woman would have particular sorrow in childbearing and conception, and sorrow shalt thou bring forth children. Her desire would be to her husband. Her desire would be to rule over her husband, and he shall rule over thee. So we have another curse. And unto Adam he said, Because you have hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat it, cursed is the ground. Adam had dominion. Adam fell. So all this bringing forth, multiplying, ruling, subduing, it was all gonna change. He would still rule, he would still have dominion. And now the very ground itself was cursed for him. In sorrow, oh there's sorrow again. Sorrow thou shalt eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles. He didn't know what those were yet. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth, and you shall eat of the herb of the field, in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till ye return to the ground. For out of it you were taken, and dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. There would be death. There would be death. And then we have this peculiar little verse in verse 20. That's what I really wanted to get to, amen. We have all this curse going on, curse, the certain, you know, and the woman, and you know, the ground, death. This was all coming. They had made the fig leaves, they're standing there in these sort of awkward fig leaves. And then Adam called his wife's name Eve. Why? Because she was the mother of all living. The mother of all living. We had just had curse upon curse upon curse. There had been a fall, the magnitude of which they in no manner could they possibly have comprehended it. They needed God to come in. And God did. Hallelujah and amen. These people now needed God in a way that they had never needed God before, because they they don't know. They don't know anything anymore. They ate of the fruit and their eyes were opened, but in the same second they became blind. Yeah, their eyes were opened, but they were blind. They they uh understood that there was a good and there was an evil, but they didn't know what it was. They knew it from a position of sin. They did not know it from the position of God, from a position of holiness. They they became strangers to life. The very life that was around, the very life that was experienced up to this point, they became strangers. And they're they're hiding from God. That never happened before. Fig leaves stitched together, that never happened before. And then all these curses come. So in the middle of all of this, God promised things. Hallelujah. God promised, and Adam believed. This was the first instance of God's word coming in, showing a man his sin. And that man responding in faith. Heretofore, it had just been the woman. Now, in faith, because Adam said, I heard you, God. I heard what you said about this woman and her seed. I heard that there's going to be an enmity, and I heard that this woman's seed, and I don't know what that is yet. Hey, they didn't know pregnancy, they didn't know A. I don't know what that is yet, but you said it. You said that whatever this seed is is gonna do something about that serpent. I believe you. And so she is Eve. She is the mother of all living. Oh, she had natural children, but my friend. Jesus, born of a virgin, Jesus, born generations down the road, the seed made of a woman, and the Holy Ghost. Hallelujah and amen. And my friend, unto Adam, verse 21, unto Adam also, and to his wife, did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothes them. Oh, they had their fig leaves at this point. They had their coverings that they had so awkwardly made, and so desperately made, and made in in fear, and made in a panic, I believe, and made in that turmoil, tossed about, desperation, somehow knowing that they that something had happened, but they knew not what. Yet some so great confusion. And so they made themselves these coverings. But my friend, I believe that this was one of the most intimate moments in the history of mankind. When the when the Lord God took them aside, and it's implied here that the Lord God called over animals, and that the Lord God personally shed the blood of those animals, personally slew those animals and shed their blood in front of them. All to make something. Glory to God. All to make something. Because he wasn't gonna rub their face in it. He wasn't gonna say that they're so hopeless. He wasn't gonna say that they're beyond redemption. He wasn't gonna say, I'm gonna wipe you out and start all over again. No, I believe he shed blood and he personally made these coats and he personally wrapped them around. Adam and his wife. This was what he was going to do to the entire human race. This is what he was going to do to them and for them. So the blood was shed right there in that garden. The first moment of faith, and the first moment of God responding to that faith right here in these people, and yet it wasn't quite done. And the Lord God said, Oh, hallelujah! Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost are all there. Um, behold, the man is become as one of us, not as me, but Father, Son, and Spirit. The man is become as one of us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put forth his hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground whence he was taken. And so he drove out the man, and he placed at the garden at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. The Lord God, and I believe this was put after this very intentionally. The Lord God had promised a redeemer, and the Lord God had gotten in there and actually covered these people in their sin, and actually did a very, very, very affectionate thing in the midst of their sin, and in the midst of cursing this creation. And now, with the Lord God having the full knowledge of what is now in Adam and Eve, having the full knowledge, all the accusation that's in them, all of the lust that is in them and that will come out, all of the brokenness, all of the confusion, all of the rationalizing, all of the blaming that he had just watched them do. But, my friend, he still clothed the He loved them as he loves you today. In the midst of your sin, passionately, loving, sacrificially loving, and doing on behalf of Adam and Eve what they could know they could not do themselves. They could not cover themselves. They could not make themselves forgiven. They had yet no understanding that they even needed forgiveness. They had no understanding of what mercy and grace are. Not before this moment. And my friend, they saw a side of God in this moment that they had never seen before. They saw the covering, redeeming love of a holy God who passionately loves people He made. And passionately loves the creation that He made, even in the midst of sin. So now knowing what's inside them, He yet continues in His mercy. And He continues in His mercy by driving them out of the garden. Because if they took of that tree of life, they would never be able to die. And yet, you ask, how is this a mercy? Oh yeah, a lot of commentators will tell you, well, it limits the sin that people can do. That's sort of true. But there's there's more to it. Jesus had to die. There had to be death. In order for them to be born again, in order, and you go back to Adam and Eve, see, they're not just mythological figures, they're people. In order for these people right here, these two people to be born again, there had to be death. Because Jesus had to die. And perhaps he showed them that that day, as he slew these animals. And perhaps he showed them that that day as he shed blood. Perhaps Jesus himself said, I'm going to shed my blood. I'm talking about myself when I said, Your seed will crush that serpent's head. I'm talking about me and what I'm going to do on something called a cross many, many generations from now. But there has to be a death, or you'll live forever in your sin. There has to be a death, or you'll never be born again. There has to be a death, or this curse will be all that there is. There has to be death. And so he drove them from that garden that day. And he made sure that no wow of Satan and no wow of the newly born flesh could ever find that tree of life again. And you don't see it until the new heavens and the new earth. Ever again in Scripture. Galatians chapter four. No, my friend. The Lord's good. Galatians chapter 4, verse 4. When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman. He sent forth his son, made of a woman. The Holy Ghost one night came upon a young woman named Mary. And the Holy Ghost did a miracle. There was a baby where there wasn't a baby before. There was a child conceived in the womb that night, simply by the Holy Ghost moving. Because Mary had her own moment of faith. You see, Gabriel had come to her. And Gabriel had announced that, hallelujah and amen, the Lord was going to do something. Hallelujah, glory and amen. The Lord was going to do something. She would have a son. His name was going to be Jesus. He was going to save the people from their sins. And she said that night, Lord, I don't understand what you're talking about, but be it so unto me, be it so according to your will. Behold the handmaiden of the Lord. And the Holy Ghost responded, and all of a sudden, there was a baby inside. All of a sudden, there had been a moment of creation quietly take place inside her, absent from Joseph. The seed, humanly speaking, the Holy Ghost did it. Hallelujah. But there was no man involved. Jesus would not have any sin of his own. Jesus would take upon himself a body of flesh. Jesus would take upon himself a body of flesh, but not have any wickedness of his own, not have any iniquity of his own, not have any accusation or hatred or malice or lust of his own. God's perfect Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. Hallelujah and amen. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. God sent forth his son. God reached down into this fallen, cursed world. God reached down. And God's word was life. What does John say of Jesus? In him was life. And life was the light of men. You see, before in the book of Genesis, life was everywhere. And God brought up death. You ever notice that? God's the one who brought it up. God said, you know, he's talking to Adam, and he said, you know, eat of any tree here. Eat of any tree in this garden. Don't eat of that one. Why? Because in the day you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will surely die in that day. Well, they ate of it. And they surely died. And you see, before they surely died, Satan was over there. What was Satan doing? You shall not surely die. Satan is contradicting. He's saying, you're not going to die if you eat of this. Now, my friend, and this is where you are. Death all around us. Curse all around us. Nothing but sin coming out of us. Day in, day out, and we can't do anything about it. What's God saying? Life. Life. Life. Whosoever believeth in me shall not perish, but have everlasting life. I am come so that they may have life. And this is you, this is Jesus talking. I am come so that they may have life, and life abundant. Come to me, my yoke is easy, my burden of is light. And out of your belly shall come rivers of living water. So God comes into this world. God comes into your life. God breaks into your meditations and your activities of death. God breaks into your silence. God breaks into your control. God breaks into your confusion. God breaks into your fear. God breaks into your lust. And he says, While you were in your lowest moment, I loved you. While you're in the middle of your adultery, in the middle of your fornication, while you're drunk out of your mind, while you're accusing me, while you're blaspheming me, while you're harassing my people, while you're you're full of your greed and your lust and your avarice and your selfishness and your pride and your ego. While you go about doing everything you can to cover yourself, while you go about doing everything you can to just kind of control the consequences of whatever sin you happen to be in, while you go about making your fig leaves, while you go about making your excuses, while you go about rationalizing it all, trying to make sense of it all, trying to come to a consensus on what the truth is while ignoring me the whole time. While you're ignoring me, I died for you. I did something. Hallelujah and amen. And I did it because I love you. While we were yet sinners, my friend, that's the practicality of that part of Romans. While we were yet sinners, in full display and full ugliness, Jesus came. God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law. Why did he send him forth? To redeem them. To redeem you. Them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Oh, my friend, there was a day, hmm? Um, because we kind of forget about Adam and Eve sometimes. But where did they go after they died? They died in faith. They were there when Jesus went and preached between the cross and the resurrection. They were there, they were waiting alongside every saint named and unnamed of what we call the Old Testament. They were there. And when Jesus came in and said it was finished, when Jesus came in and said, I shed my blood and it's done. When Jesus came in, my he had to have a twinkle in his eye when he looked at Eve. He said, This is what I was talking about. I did it. This is what I was talking about, the seed of woman. This is that day. This is what we were talking about. It's done. I crushed the serpent's head. He bruised my heel. I died. But I'm not gonna stay dead. I crushed his head. Remember those clothes that I made you? This is what I was talking about. It's done. You're forgiven. You're adopted. Adam got adopted. Eve got adopted. And oh my friends, they're up in glory now. My friend, they're witness number one and witness number two in the cloud of witnesses. First one's Adam and the second one's Eve. They're in glory. It's finished, it's done. My friend, Jesus died. And he died for you. Jesus died. And my friend, is he right now breaking into your death? Is he right now interrupting your sin? Because my friend, I dare say, you didn't out sin Adam. Your sin did not cause the ground itself to be cursed. Your sin did not cause death to pass on every man, woman, and child who would ever be born after you. You you perhaps didn't watch Cain. Because my friend, you know, there I believe there's a moment of joy. Maybe they thought that this was the one. But did your heart break while you watched him murder his brother? Adams did. Oh, my friend, you haven't outsinned the love of God. If God's talking to you tonight, you haven't outsinned his love. No matter how bad you think your sin might be, no matter how hopeless your situation might be, you see, you see all death all the time. And yet, intermingled in your death, there are promises that God has made to you. Intermingled between all of your fornication, intermingled between all of all those months, intermixed between them. There's death and there's death, and there's death, and but then there's this promise that anybody whosoever should believe on me should not perish but have everlasting life. And God gets it to you between your fornication and your adultery. God gets it to you between your adultery and your crushing guilt. God gets it to you between your adultery and your numbness and just giving it up. God gets it to you. Right now, God gets it to you. Oh, between the flares and the outbursts of anger, because the anger's always inside, but you see it when it comes out. But oh my friend, before, during, and after that that promise continues to ring. God sent forth his son, made of a woman, and he says, I sent him forth for you. Because he is not willing that you should perish. He wasn't willing that Adam should perish. He wasn't willing that Eve should perish. Oh, what did he do for them? Yes, in dying, they would die. But even in death, you see, God used death to defeat him that has the power of death. So God used death. And he uses it in you tonight, my friend. He reminds you. The wages of sin is death. Oh, my friend, you'll die a physical death, but have you noticed how much your sin hurts you? Have you noticed how much the anger harms you? How much the fornication harms you? How much the addiction costs financially? Have you noticed the effect it has on other people? Have you noticed that you are not as young as you were yesterday? Oh, my friend, it's a terrible truth of fornication, especially. The older we get, the more numb we get. And the harder it is to fornicate, and the harder it is to enjoy sin. Because, my friend, you are marching to the grave. And you will perish, you will die. And oh my friend, there's a word of God that comes in. You will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And every single one of us, saved or not, will be judged for the deeds which are done in the body. And every idle word that you ever spoke, every idle word that you've spoken to cut somebody else down, every idle word that you've spoken, God has a record of it. And it will be held to your account. My friend, the law speaks to you. But that law speaks to you. Oh, it's a it's a condemning word, it's a heavy word. But intermingled in that law, and you go back and read it. You go back and you read Leviticus. You go back and you read Exodus. You go back and you read Deuteronomy. Intermingled all the way through that law is the blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus. And the affectionate heart of a loving God, first to the Jew and then to the Gentile. For the affectionate heart of a loving God, that you should not die in your sin. That you should live and not die and declare the works of the Lord. That's part of the law. I'm not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to everlasting life. So, my friend, if our musicians will come forward tonight, my friend, has God broken into your life tonight? And my friend, how is your response? You know, because just like those far gone days with Adam, who in the in the throes of his sin, standing in his fig leaves, and the woman beside him, standing in their fig leaves, lost, before a holy God. And yet here's God in front of them. Oh, there's a terrible death, there's a terrible sorrow, there's a terrible curse. And my friend, I I know you understand that. You've experienced that, you live that. That's that's our life. Before the Lord breaks in. And my friend, in that moment, when God started making promises, something happened in the heart of Adam. The first instance of faith sprang up in that man. He said, God, I don't understand it, but I believe it. God's this is hard for me because I'm so confused, I'm lost. But you're coming to me, and you're speaking this, and you're saying this, and you're all I've got. My friend, that might be you tonight. You're trembling and you're shaking and you're fearful and you're afraid, and the fear of the Lord is upon you. And God is all you've got. I've got good news for you. This is the gospel. Yes, the wrath of God hangs over your head, but the gospel is this. The goodness of God toward you is this. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Oh, my friend, what happens in your heart, even at his name? Jesus. Oh, the blood that's been shed, and the death that's been died, and the life that's alive today. And he calls you and he says, Come to me, trust me, call out to me. Here's my hand. Take my hand. Oh, my friend, ask him to be born again. Ask him to be saved. Ask him to have your sins washed away in his blood. Ask him for righteousness. Ask him for life. Oh, my friend, submit yourself to him.

unknown 44:25

Believe.

Invitation To Believe And Respond

SPEAKER_00 44:26

Believe on him tonight. Trust him. Throw yourself upon him tonight. Because you're in a desperate state. But my friend, there's a passionate, zealous God who plucks you out of hell, who plucks you out of the fire, who plucks you out of death. Now he sits you in a wide place. He and he and he fills you with life and life abundant. My friend, believe him tonight. And uh, my friend, if that's you tonight, if you've believed him, and my friend, if you're here in this room and you must be saved, hallelujah. These folks behind me will play, and I invite you simply to come forward. And I'd be glad to pray with you tonight. But my friend listening on the radio, my friend watching on television, my friend watching on a computer or a phone somewhere, hallelujah. Call upon the name of Jesus. Ask him to be born again, ask him to be saved. Because, my friend, if that faith is simple and plain and genuine, naturally springing up in you, just let it have some words. Ask the Lord to save you. And my friend, um, he's never ever cast anybody away who believed. Starting with Adam. He's not going to cast away you. Hallelujah. And so thank you for being here and um get in touch with us. We'd love to hear what the Lord's doing in your life. Call us and email us, um, even send us text messages, hallelujah, and amen. Um, invite you to come to our services. Um, you're welcome here, you're expected here. We look forward to meeting you in person, and thank you so much for sharing these in so many different nations around the world, 84 that I know of. And thank you for helping us reach more people in your area and helping us reach more people um beyond your area as well. Thank you for that. And may the Lord continue to ritually bless us tonight. Amen.