WEBVTT 00:00:00.300 --> 00:00:07.320 Genesis 3, as we look at this text of scripture, I want it to come to life for us today in 00:00:07.320 --> 00:00:13.900 exactly God's intentions in placing this section of the Bible for us in scripture. 00:00:14.320 --> 00:00:18.450 The first three chapters of Genesis, some of you probably know this about me. 00:00:18.500 --> 00:00:25.280 I referenced this section a lot when I preach, but first chapters of Genesis are I think, my favorite chapters of the Bible. 00:00:25.700 --> 00:00:30.830 I say that every time I preach about any texts of scripture, but I'm serious about the first three chapters of Genesis. 00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:38.060 And the reason I say that is because the foundation of Christianity, the belief, every belief that we stand on can be rooted in 00:00:38.060 --> 00:00:39.800 the first three chapters of Genesis. 00:00:40.300 --> 00:00:41.760 Every major doctrine of Christianity. 00:00:42.160 --> 00:00:49.160 You can start to see the strokes painted for the truth of who God is and what he desires for us to know about him in these first three chapters. 00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:49.660 They are paramount. 00:00:50.600 --> 00:00:54.900 And one of the things I want us to recognize as we look at this section of scripture, let me just use this illustration. 00:00:55.720 --> 00:01:02.740 If you think about these notes on a page, these musical notes and your understanding of music. 00:01:03.200 --> 00:01:10.220 When you look at these notes, for some of you that may not know how to read notes or play an instrument, you look at this and you 00:01:10.240 --> 00:01:12.300 can kind of appreciate words on a page. 00:01:12.980 --> 00:01:16.960 But just words on a page, there's not a lot of life in that for some of us, right? 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:18.760 We look at this we're like, I know what it is. 00:01:18.760 --> 00:01:20.020 I can appreciate that. 00:01:20.240 --> 00:01:23.340 And historically, as I explained this section of music to you. 00:01:23.380 --> 00:01:28.460 This is a section of Beethoven's 9th Symphony. 00:01:28.460 --> 00:01:31.680 That he wrote and composed when he was completely deaf. 00:01:31.820 --> 00:01:35.810 This was the last thing that Beethoven wrote and performed. 00:01:36.120 --> 00:01:41.480 You could start to even grow in that historical appreciation of these musical notes, right? 00:01:42.500 --> 00:01:49.680 But when you learn how to take what's on that page and make the application, the beauty of what this 00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:51.940 page is, it just brings it to life, right? 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:53.580 You know the joy of music. 00:01:53.660 --> 00:01:55.150 This is why are we sing as a church. 00:01:55.300 --> 00:01:58.120 Music just ministers to the soul. 00:01:59.140 --> 00:02:04.580 It's a beautiful thing to experience, not just look out on a page, but music is there to experience it. 00:02:04.800 --> 00:02:09.500 To understand its truth and just to kind of live it out as it's made known. 00:02:09.520 --> 00:02:12.440 And I would say the same thing is true for the Bible. 00:02:14.620 --> 00:02:21.020 That the Bible, when it's written to us, we look at it sometimes without an understanding, it just looks like thoughts on a page, right? 00:02:22.620 --> 00:02:26.880 But God's intentions for those words are to breathe life into our lives. 00:02:28.240 --> 00:02:30.640 And not just to know it, but to really live it. 00:02:30.920 --> 00:02:32.420 The experience of what it is. 00:02:32.680 --> 00:02:38.520 And in the first three chapters of Genesis, a lot of what shared about the life of Adam and Eve is more than just a story. 00:02:38.660 --> 00:02:42.100 It is a story, but it's something that we walk in every day. 00:02:43.200 --> 00:02:50.360 And so some of us may look at the story of Genesis, if we're to say a summary of this book, we'd look at the first three chapters and you might even know you might even grown 00:02:50.360 --> 00:02:54.760 up in a church and you know the historical teaching of Genesis chapter three, right? 00:02:54.800 --> 00:02:58.440 It's about two naked people walking around talking to snakes and doing stupid stuff. 00:02:58.580 --> 00:03:00.940 Now what does that have to do with you? 00:03:02.180 --> 00:03:09.180 And the more you read the story and you get the understanding of what God is communicating to us through this story, it starts to bring 00:03:09.180 --> 00:03:14.960 this off the page and it sings into our soul, this truth of what God wants to communicate into our lives. 00:03:16.920 --> 00:03:22.100 We looked at this last week in the first two chapters of Genesis, is God starts to lay out this significance of creation. 00:03:22.320 --> 00:03:26.200 That some people come to Genesis and they want to know how God created. 00:03:26.260 --> 00:03:31.880 And they'll take the first two chapters of Genesis and they'll argue their whatever their theology is and how God creates. 00:03:32.220 --> 00:03:37.220 But the first two chapters of Genesis aren't there to tell us how God creates, but rather why God creates. 00:03:38.760 --> 00:03:44.260 And the crown of his creation is humanity, making us different than anything else he designs. 00:03:44.300 --> 00:03:50.260 In Genesis 2:7, this beautiful verse describing you, that says to you that you are the beauty of his creation. 00:03:50.700 --> 00:03:55.580 And it says, then the Lord God formed man of the dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. 00:03:55.960 --> 00:03:57.380 Man became a living. 00:03:59.610 --> 00:04:00.940 God made you beautifully. 00:04:03.320 --> 00:04:04.380 God made you to connect relationally. 00:04:06.640 --> 00:04:12.960 And to summarize last week, we said this about our creation, that when God made us, he said to rule and to bless. 00:04:13.020 --> 00:04:14.560 God made us to rule and to bless. 00:04:15.460 --> 00:04:20.029 God made us for relationship and God made us to rest in his presence. 00:04:21.640 --> 00:04:26.160 In fact, we got to the seventh day, and "God said, and he rested. 00:04:28.360 --> 00:04:30.300 And something interesting about those seven days. 00:04:30.300 --> 00:04:34.860 You look at the first six days of God's creation, it says, God speaks and it was morning and the evening of the first day. 00:04:35.500 --> 00:04:37.820 And God speaks and there was morning and evening of the second day. 00:04:37.880 --> 00:04:38.920 And every day he calls it good. 00:04:38.980 --> 00:04:41.280 But when he gets to the seventh day, God never says, it's morning and evening. 00:04:42.400 --> 00:04:43.320 All it says is God rests. 00:04:45.500 --> 00:04:52.570 We taught that the intentions of God in saying that, is God is distinguishing for us the first six days is creative work. 00:04:52.800 --> 00:04:54.580 God is creating, God is creating, God is creating. 00:04:55.020 --> 00:04:59.180 And then the seventh day God rests, because God never intends beyond his rest for anything else to happen. 00:04:59.240 --> 00:05:02.880 That God makes us for relationship in him, to delight in his presence all the days of our lives. 00:05:03.200 --> 00:05:06.220 He never says on the seventh day, it's morning and evening at the end of the seventh day. 00:05:07.380 --> 00:05:11.620 God made you to rest and enjoy your relationship with him for all of eternity. 00:05:11.860 --> 00:05:17.300 To rule with him, to be a blessing to this world and have relationship, not just with the Lord, but with one another. 00:05:18.640 --> 00:05:24.520 In fact, as you look at the rest of Genesis 2, what you see is that the rest of the story unfolds, is we're resting in God's presence. 00:05:24.520 --> 00:05:25.740 Then God creates woman. 00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:28.720 And man and woman had this beautiful union before the Lord. 00:05:28.760 --> 00:05:32.900 And so God in our relationship with God, it's then reflected in relationship with each other. 00:05:33.300 --> 00:05:38.840 Beautiful, harmonious, perfect in relationship in the presence of God. 00:05:39.420 --> 00:05:39.940 And then what happened? 00:05:43.180 --> 00:05:44.280 Genesis 3 is that explanation. 00:05:46.260 --> 00:05:48.600 And remember Genesis was written to a group of slaves. 00:05:50.620 --> 00:05:52.520 They've just come out of the Exodus with Moses. 00:05:54.480 --> 00:05:59.460 And I think as Moses is writing this passage to the slaves, he's helping him find identity. 00:06:01.080 --> 00:06:01.890 Who are we? 00:06:03.300 --> 00:06:05.780 You can imagine the trauma, maybe of a life like that. 00:06:07.260 --> 00:06:08.620 You've always been told you're worthless. 00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:13.440 Pharaoh looked down to you, the people of Egypt looked down to you. 00:06:15.140 --> 00:06:16.410 Who are you? 00:06:17.540 --> 00:06:18.900 Why does God give a rip about you? 00:06:21.460 --> 00:06:24.520 And he begins to explain the beauty of who we are in light of who God is. 00:06:25.520 --> 00:06:26.180 Our identity. 00:06:27.480 --> 00:06:33.000 As you look at the first two chapters of Genesis, you have to ask the question, if this is the way God made things, this is not the way things are. 00:06:34.740 --> 00:06:35.120 What happened? 00:06:37.920 --> 00:06:39.540 Why do we have adversity in life? 00:06:39.560 --> 00:06:42.160 Now I want you to, I'm not going to explain where evil comes from. 00:06:42.160 --> 00:06:49.220 I don't have time to dive into that today, but I will let you know knowing that I wasn't going to talk about where evil comes from this morning, I wrote it on the blog on our 00:06:49.220 --> 00:06:49.560 church website. 00:06:49.700 --> 00:06:55.540 So if you go to our website or you go to the app and you click on blog, you can read about it, if you are interested in where evil comes from. 00:06:55.720 --> 00:07:02.340 But I'm going to talk from this perspective of what evil has done in our lives and what God's solution is to it. 00:07:03.560 --> 00:07:05.720 So the big question is, what in the world happened? 00:07:05.940 --> 00:07:09.560 If we were perfect, everything was perfect, how did we get to where we are today? 00:07:10.540 --> 00:07:16.620 And you start to see how sin is introduced into life in the first few chapters of Genesis. 00:07:17.060 --> 00:07:21.180 How sin was introduced or AKA, we could say how Adam and Eve stepped in it. 00:07:21.180 --> 00:07:24.000 Whatever you want to picture the "it" as they stepped in it, right? 00:07:24.260 --> 00:07:25.800 And so how did this happen? 00:07:26.720 --> 00:07:30.410 Well, the first 5 verses of Genesis, it tells us it was the snakes fault. 00:07:31.040 --> 00:07:35.540 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. 00:07:35.540 --> 00:07:42.580 And he said to the woman, "Indeed has God said, you shall not eat from any tree of the garden?" And the woman said to the 00:07:42.580 --> 00:07:49.580 serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden, we may eat, but from the fruit of the tree, which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat 00:07:49.720 --> 00:07:55.800 from it or touch it or you will die." The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die. 00:07:56.120 --> 00:08:04.020 For God knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God knowing good and evil." 00:08:04.240 --> 00:08:05.000 That silly snake. 00:08:07.640 --> 00:08:09.900 You start to read these first few sections of scripture. 00:08:09.980 --> 00:08:15.440 I just want you to know, by the way, I'm going to say something and if you don't agree with me, we can still be friends after this. 00:08:16.020 --> 00:08:20.670 But I don't believe in talking snakes and I don't believe in talking snakes in the garden. 00:08:23.840 --> 00:08:28.500 Let me give you a practical reasons why I don't think what's really being said here is a snake talked. 00:08:29.260 --> 00:08:35.140 I know my wife, if she represents any perspective of women at all. 00:08:35.640 --> 00:08:38.400 When it comes to snakes, that ain't happening right? 00:08:39.059 --> 00:08:42.799 When it comes to talking snakes, that has never happening. 00:08:42.820 --> 00:08:49.070 In the back of our house, I probably shouldn't tell you this if anyone visits, but I have a snake that lives in the back of my yard. 00:08:49.700 --> 00:08:51.440 And I know where it lives. 00:08:51.700 --> 00:08:53.280 I refuse to tell my wife where that's at. 00:08:53.940 --> 00:08:57.900 But the reason I know it's the same snake is it's got a particular scar on its body. 00:08:58.180 --> 00:09:00.460 And every time I see it, we hang out in the backyard. 00:09:01.240 --> 00:09:02.080 It's a regular visitor. 00:09:02.080 --> 00:09:04.670 And the reason I liked the snake is because I hate mice worse. 00:09:05.340 --> 00:09:09.050 And so the snake does it's job, I have no mice and me and the snake get along great. 00:09:09.580 --> 00:09:14.390 But I can tell you, rest assured, if that snake ever talked, it would not be in my backyard. 00:09:15.460 --> 00:09:20.960 And you read this story of Adam and Eve, like Adam and Eve walking through the garden. 00:09:21.040 --> 00:09:23.560 Eve's like, "Adam's too busy to talk to me right now. 00:09:23.620 --> 00:09:27.520 Oh, this snake wants to chat." No lady's going to talk to this snake, right? 00:09:27.520 --> 00:09:30.390 If there's a talking snake, no one's stopping to talk to the snake. 00:09:30.600 --> 00:09:36.000 But what I think this passage of scripture is communicating to us is the nature of the identity of Satan. 00:09:38.200 --> 00:09:40.220 Satan is like a snake. 00:09:41.560 --> 00:09:48.660 Hebrew literature is pretty interesting in how it chooses to describe characteristics of individuals or even God. 00:09:48.780 --> 00:09:53.800 If you read the Greek, Greek is very descriptive of identity. 00:09:53.900 --> 00:09:59.060 It would say God is omnipotent and eternal, if it wanted to describe who God is. 00:09:59.060 --> 00:10:02.700 We get a grasp on the details of those words and the identity of who God is. 00:10:03.300 --> 00:10:07.180 In Hebrew you would say something like, God is from everlasting to everlasting. 00:10:07.680 --> 00:10:08.490 Why don't you just call him eternal? 00:10:09.240 --> 00:10:14.860 They are more poetic and they would attribute identity to him by saying something like, "God is like a rock. 00:10:15.160 --> 00:10:16.240 Or God is like a bear. 00:10:16.580 --> 00:10:20.360 Or God is like an eagle." And this imagery paints a picture in your mind. 00:10:20.360 --> 00:10:24.700 Rather than all these adjectives, they just choose these words that paint this imagery in your mind. 00:10:24.960 --> 00:10:26.500 The same is true I think for Satan. 00:10:28.300 --> 00:10:33.320 Rather than go into this long explanation of who he is, it chooses a word to express his identity. 00:10:34.600 --> 00:10:35.360 He is a snake. 00:10:37.120 --> 00:10:45.200 If you want to consider another passage that describes Satan in the garden of Eden, Ezekiel 28:13-19, describe 00:10:45.200 --> 00:10:46.380 Satan in the garden of Eden. 00:10:46.440 --> 00:10:48.970 When you look at that description, a snake is never mentioned. 00:10:49.100 --> 00:10:56.200 In fact, when it describes Satan's appearance in the garden of Eden, it describes him as this angelic being full of this array of 00:10:56.200 --> 00:10:56.300 jewelry. 00:10:57.600 --> 00:10:58.760 He just shines and radiates. 00:10:59.840 --> 00:11:01.390 That is far different than a snake. 00:11:01.540 --> 00:11:03.820 There should be no jewels on snakes. 00:11:04.480 --> 00:11:08.880 But when it describes Satan Ezekiel 28 it describes this image of beauty. 00:11:09.620 --> 00:11:17.100 And when you get to the New Testament, Luke 10:19, Jesus says to his disciples that you have the authority over Satan 00:11:17.100 --> 00:11:20.720 to trample serpents and scorpions. 00:11:22.060 --> 00:11:29.080 I don't think Jesus is really saying to his disciples, "Look, just go step on all kinds of snakes when you see them." I think what Jesus is saying to them rather 00:11:29.080 --> 00:11:35.160 is the snake and the scorpions tend to personify what evil is, and you have the authority over it. 00:11:36.320 --> 00:11:42.500 And when he's describing a snake in the garden of Eden, I think he's describing the personification of the nature of Satan. 00:11:43.160 --> 00:11:50.220 In fact, when you read in the New Testament, this word in Hebrew, by the way, is "nachash." It relates to an enchanter, one who is double 00:11:50.220 --> 00:11:52.690 tongue, who speaks deceivingly to people. 00:11:53.560 --> 00:11:55.920 Satan is described that way in the New Testament. 00:11:55.940 --> 00:11:58.840 He's described as a deceiver, John 8:44. 00:11:58.860 --> 00:12:04.880 2 Corinthians 11:3, he's described as this angel of light, which is what's expressed about him in Ezekiel 28. 00:12:05.260 --> 00:12:08.340 He's an angel of light, in 2 Corinthians 11:14. 00:12:08.920 --> 00:12:13.360 In Revelation 21, rather than being expressed as a snake, he's called a dragon. 00:12:14.220 --> 00:12:15.610 So apparently somehow he grew some wings. 00:12:17.180 --> 00:12:22.680 But you get the idea of his nature and what he's up to and the description that's given to us in the garden of Eden. 00:12:23.620 --> 00:12:24.740 His intentions are not good. 00:12:26.340 --> 00:12:30.080 Now, Adam and Eve were completely responsible for the decisions that they make. 00:12:30.080 --> 00:12:31.980 But Satan is trying to deceive them. 00:12:33.100 --> 00:12:37.900 And I want us to pay attention to the way that Satan moves through his deception in Adam and Eve. 00:12:37.900 --> 00:12:44.980 In verse one, here's what he says, "Indeed has, God said, you shall not eat from any tree of the garden?" Like 00:12:45.040 --> 00:12:50.020 there's a stepped process in how Adam and Eve are being deceived by Satan here. 00:12:50.020 --> 00:12:55.310 And the first thing Satan does is he gets them to question the truth of what God says. 00:12:58.330 --> 00:13:04.460 "The God really say that?" Questioning his truth. 00:13:06.800 --> 00:13:10.500 Can I just encourage us as I think about the way that the enemy works? 00:13:12.520 --> 00:13:16.900 Be careful with truth. 00:13:18.240 --> 00:13:25.640 One of the things that this past week I watched a few different debates in our valley and one 00:13:25.640 --> 00:13:32.880 of the things I kept recognizing as people were talking is there was this animosity built up in individuals lives because at 00:13:32.880 --> 00:13:34.730 some point someone had lied to them. 00:13:36.740 --> 00:13:37.660 And they don't want to be deceived again. 00:13:39.900 --> 00:13:43.820 And their hearts were hardened and even angry over having been lied to. 00:13:45.780 --> 00:13:49.660 It's difficult when you're lied to want to trust in anything else again. 00:13:52.160 --> 00:13:53.900 And that makes your position of truth important. 00:13:56.340 --> 00:14:02.360 To not just say things about God flippantly, but to really come to know him. 00:14:04.020 --> 00:14:07.300 And to share that truth that changes lives. 00:14:09.040 --> 00:14:12.220 The first thing that Satan wants Adam and Eve to do is question truth. 00:14:14.840 --> 00:14:18.160 Verse two and three, Eve's response is a little interesting. 00:14:18.200 --> 00:14:25.240 People spend a little more time on this than I think we should, but Eve responds and said, "From the fruit of the tree of the garden of Eden, we may eat, but from the fruit of the 00:14:25.240 --> 00:14:32.540 tree in the middle of the garden, God said, you shall not eat from it or touch it or you will die." Here's what's interesting about Eve's statement that people like to identify, 00:14:32.540 --> 00:14:34.460 is God never said, you shouldn't touch it. 00:14:35.940 --> 00:14:36.880 God just said, don't eat it. 00:14:39.180 --> 00:14:43.760 And you see this sort of fabrication of adding on to what God says. 00:14:44.420 --> 00:14:51.560 And people speculate over why the author wanted to include this thought of elaborating 00:14:51.560 --> 00:14:54.420 on the truth, or expanding on it beyond what God really said. 00:14:55.640 --> 00:14:56.660 What God said was just don't eat it. 00:14:58.220 --> 00:14:59.420 So let the truth just be the truth. 00:14:59.460 --> 00:15:00.440 You don't need to add to it. 00:15:02.240 --> 00:15:05.340 Let the truth of who God is resonate with people as you share it. 00:15:05.520 --> 00:15:08.260 And in verse four then Satan starts to question. 00:15:08.260 --> 00:15:15.380 "The serpent said to the woman, 'Surely you will not die.'" In this one statement he's actually opposing 00:15:15.380 --> 00:15:16.700 God in two ways. 00:15:17.180 --> 00:15:23.260 First is, he wants her to question the identity of God, the character of God. 00:15:23.340 --> 00:15:30.500 He's saying not only do you should you question the truth of what God says, "did God really say that?" But then he's saying, now let's just question God's character all together, the identity 00:15:30.500 --> 00:15:31.140 of who He is. 00:15:32.060 --> 00:15:35.120 God's lying to you, right? 00:15:37.120 --> 00:15:41.200 And not only that, in the same thought that he's sharing, he's also saying, don't worry about judgment. 00:15:44.840 --> 00:15:46.860 Don't worry about the results. 00:15:47.600 --> 00:15:49.910 God's not really being forthcoming with you. 00:15:50.280 --> 00:15:57.340 And then in verse five he gives this final thought, "For God knows that on the day you will eat from it your eyes will be open and you'll be like 00:15:57.340 --> 00:16:04.880 God, knowing good and evil." And what he's saying is, look, you know better than God. 00:16:05.260 --> 00:16:07.440 The knowledge of the tree of good and evil is about this. 00:16:07.540 --> 00:16:14.780 It's about saying to God rather than God declaring what's right and wrong, you're going to have the knowledge to declare right 00:16:14.780 --> 00:16:15.860 from wrong. 00:16:16.280 --> 00:16:18.040 Meaning God's no longer going to be God. 00:16:18.480 --> 00:16:22.740 You're going to be God and you're going to dictate to this world what is right and what is wrong. 00:16:25.200 --> 00:16:27.740 You know better than God. 00:16:28.340 --> 00:16:29.000 Question his truth. 00:16:30.980 --> 00:16:31.960 Did God really say...? 00:16:32.240 --> 00:16:33.080 Question his character. 00:16:34.620 --> 00:16:36.540 Don't worry about judgment and you know what? 00:16:37.600 --> 00:16:39.060 You know what's better for you than God does. 00:16:40.060 --> 00:16:42.050 Forget that he created you for his purpose. 00:16:42.620 --> 00:16:43.620 Live life for your purpose. 00:16:45.560 --> 00:16:52.780 We say this as a church, I like to remind us when it comes to following after the Lord, we like to know everything but 00:16:52.780 --> 00:16:55.420 this faith that we walk in as a journey. 00:16:56.860 --> 00:16:58.920 And you get to learn and grow in it every day. 00:17:00.300 --> 00:17:03.820 And there is a foundation that when you begin this journey to rest yourself in. 00:17:04.780 --> 00:17:06.380 And that's to simply answered two questions. 00:17:07.500 --> 00:17:08.440 What's the foundation of truth? 00:17:09.540 --> 00:17:10.140 And who is Jesus? 00:17:12.099 --> 00:17:19.339 When we get the security of understanding the source for which truth should come and the identity of who Jesus really is, that's 00:17:19.380 --> 00:17:20.020 where you rest yourself. 00:17:22.000 --> 00:17:24.460 And Satan wants Adam and Eve to question this. 00:17:24.460 --> 00:17:28.300 And he says, the moment you eat this, you're going to become this elevated being. 00:17:28.300 --> 00:17:35.300 You're going to become like God, which is a very interesting statement for Satan to make because Isaiah 14 tells us that that's the 00:17:35.300 --> 00:17:37.660 very thing that caused Satan to be thrown out of heaven. 00:17:38.820 --> 00:17:43.500 Isaiah 14:12, "How you are fallen from heaven, oh day star, son of dawn. 00:17:44.300 --> 00:17:45.740 How you are cut down to the ground. 00:17:46.180 --> 00:17:51.340 You who laid the nations low, you set in your heart will ascend to heaven above the stars of God. 00:17:51.340 --> 00:17:52.900 I will set my throne on high. 00:17:52.900 --> 00:17:56.000 I will sit on the Mount of assembly, in the far reaches of the North. 00:17:56.000 --> 00:17:57.480 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. 00:17:57.520 --> 00:18:03.540 I will make myself like the Most High." Bible tells us, there's only one God. 00:18:05.680 --> 00:18:09.680 Isaiah 43:10 Isaiah 44:6-8, there's only one God. 00:18:09.680 --> 00:18:10.840 That's all that's ever been. 00:18:10.840 --> 00:18:12.370 That's all there ever will be. 00:18:14.060 --> 00:18:19.380 And the same lie that got Satan kicked out of heaven is the same lie he shares with Adam and Eve in the garden. 00:18:19.960 --> 00:18:23.740 And I would say it's the same lie we buy into every day in our lives. 00:18:23.840 --> 00:18:26.460 We make ourselves before the Lord. 00:18:28.500 --> 00:18:30.240 And Adam and Eve, you know the story, right? 00:18:31.880 --> 00:18:34.060 They sinned and how they respond in sin is important. 00:18:34.180 --> 00:18:41.480 It says in verse six, "When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight into the eyes and that the tree was desirable 00:18:41.640 --> 00:18:44.160 to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate. 00:18:44.380 --> 00:18:46.960 And she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. 00:18:48.200 --> 00:18:55.360 Then the eyes of both of them were open and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings." This my 00:18:55.360 --> 00:18:56.680 future Halloween outfit, right? 00:18:57.280 --> 00:19:04.340 "And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden, the cool of the day, and man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of 00:19:04.340 --> 00:19:06.960 the Lord God among the trees in the garden. 00:19:10.060 --> 00:19:13.960 When Adam and Eve's sin, you think about this. 00:19:14.080 --> 00:19:18.020 They must have the attention span of kids all jacked up on Halloween candy. 00:19:18.260 --> 00:19:25.260 God creates them, God says, don't do this and here we are not even a chapter later, and they're already doing exactly what 00:19:25.260 --> 00:19:26.690 God says not to do. 00:19:27.680 --> 00:19:30.600 And then you see the result of the sin. 00:19:32.080 --> 00:19:35.320 Adam and Eve declare themselves God, they partake of the fruit. 00:19:35.880 --> 00:19:42.940 What's really interesting about this section in verse six is Eve eats of this fruit first and then it says she gives to Adam who's beside of 00:19:42.940 --> 00:19:43.340 her. 00:19:43.620 --> 00:19:49.180 If you look at the story as it's told in Genesis 2, God never told Eve not to eat of the fruit. 00:19:49.360 --> 00:19:53.380 God actually told Adam not to eat the fruit and Adam was responsible to share that with Eve. 00:19:53.900 --> 00:20:00.500 And when Adam went to Eve, maybe somehow, apparently Adam said to Eve, look, don't eat of the fruit, but in fact not just don't eat of the fruit. 00:20:00.600 --> 00:20:01.560 Don't touch it, don't get near it. 00:20:01.560 --> 00:20:02.280 Don't do anything about it. 00:20:02.440 --> 00:20:03.200 Don't even look at it. 00:20:04.520 --> 00:20:11.700 But when it came time to partake of this fruit or the temptation of this fruit, Adam rather stand up with his wife to fight against 00:20:11.700 --> 00:20:13.700 the serpent here, he just lets her go down. 00:20:14.780 --> 00:20:19.140 He's so close to her that it literally tells us in the story after she takes the bite, she turns to him. 00:20:19.300 --> 00:20:20.320 She's like, "Look, I didn't die. 00:20:20.320 --> 00:20:22.440 Do you want a piece?" Adam just lets her go down. 00:20:22.440 --> 00:20:24.080 He's like sitting there watching her eat this. 00:20:24.080 --> 00:20:25.470 He's like, I can't, I can't do this. 00:20:25.950 --> 00:20:26.960 Ahhhh, let's see what happens. 00:20:27.000 --> 00:20:28.600 If she eats, doesn't die he's like, okay. 00:20:28.980 --> 00:20:31.400 God said if you eat, you'll die and okay, you didn't die. 00:20:31.440 --> 00:20:31.900 So give it to me. 00:20:31.900 --> 00:20:32.970 I want to try this sucker out. 00:20:33.040 --> 00:20:33.140 Right? 00:20:34.660 --> 00:20:38.360 So they declare themselves and the knowledge of good evil, they know better than God. 00:20:38.360 --> 00:20:39.340 They partake of the fruit. 00:20:39.640 --> 00:20:40.280 And then what happens? 00:20:40.700 --> 00:20:41.100 Well, death. 00:20:42.600 --> 00:20:46.640 It tells us in verse seven how that they begin to recognize that they knew that they were naked. 00:20:49.660 --> 00:20:57.200 This thought is not just simply that they realized they didn't have clothes on, but rather what it's saying is to this point in the garden, they're clothed 00:20:57.200 --> 00:20:58.660 in the glory and presence of God. 00:21:00.880 --> 00:21:06.820 Theologians will describe the garden actually as the first temple, and I want you see this in verse eight in just a minute. 00:21:07.140 --> 00:21:09.060 But they were clothed in God's presence. 00:21:11.420 --> 00:21:14.540 And now all of a sudden, that presence is gone. 00:21:16.620 --> 00:21:17.820 And God himself is life. 00:21:19.420 --> 00:21:21.860 And when we're disconnected from him who is life, that is death. 00:21:24.100 --> 00:21:28.360 And so now for Adam and Eve, the clock is just ticking until they find themselves in a grave. 00:21:29.840 --> 00:21:31.580 But both of them knew that they were naked. 00:21:31.900 --> 00:21:32.800 And then look what it says. 00:21:32.940 --> 00:21:37.140 "And then they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin cloths." That is just such a weird statement. 00:21:39.420 --> 00:21:40.000 Who cares? 00:21:41.490 --> 00:21:46.830 Until you realize what the author is singing in this passage of scripture. 00:21:49.100 --> 00:21:54.770 The Hebrew word for fig leaves here, it's a soldier's garment. 00:21:56.080 --> 00:21:58.200 It's a warrior preparing for battle. 00:22:00.060 --> 00:22:01.580 Adam and Eve realized they screwed up. 00:22:03.560 --> 00:22:07.940 And their response to that, is to literally create the first man-made religion. 00:22:09.700 --> 00:22:10.540 "Oh no, we messed up. 00:22:10.760 --> 00:22:17.340 God, we're going to war and we're going to fight and we're going to fix it." And so they run and they sew these fig leaves together. 00:22:17.340 --> 00:22:20.880 They put on these soldiers garments and they start the battle. 00:22:23.580 --> 00:22:24.260 Cover it up. 00:22:25.760 --> 00:22:27.560 Every religion since then, that's what it's about, right? 00:22:28.360 --> 00:22:31.640 Do these rules to cover your sin and then God will love you. 00:22:32.900 --> 00:22:40.260 But can I tell you, why fight to win a battle, when 00:22:40.420 --> 00:22:43.310 Jesus has already fought and been victorious for you? 00:22:44.700 --> 00:22:46.410 Do you see this correlation, soldier's garments? 00:22:46.580 --> 00:22:47.580 That's what it's saying to us, right? 00:22:47.780 --> 00:22:49.840 He's about to share with us the story of the gospel. 00:22:50.080 --> 00:22:52.840 And he's saying, look, here's the first foolish thing that they did in their sins. 00:22:52.880 --> 00:22:54.060 And we do this all the time. 00:22:55.100 --> 00:22:57.400 God, just let me go fight this battle to prove to you that I'm lovable. 00:22:59.660 --> 00:23:00.810 Why fight it? 00:23:03.380 --> 00:23:07.890 Jesus has already fought it for you and he won. 00:23:10.660 --> 00:23:14.360 There's nothing you're ever going to do to make God love you more. 00:23:17.400 --> 00:23:21.170 And there's nothing you've done that's going to make God love you less. 00:23:24.100 --> 00:23:27.380 Jesus has already fought the battle and won. 00:23:30.320 --> 00:23:34.380 How foolish is it to cloud our lives with religious performance? 00:23:37.880 --> 00:23:40.200 Jesus, wants you in that mess. 00:23:40.200 --> 00:23:41.260 Jesus wants you. 00:23:43.720 --> 00:23:45.960 Why keep fighting a battle he's already fought? 00:23:47.880 --> 00:23:53.820 Not only does the passage say this, but in verse eight he goes on a little further and it starts to explain something. 00:23:54.460 --> 00:24:01.860 There's something interesting in the Hebrew I want you to see, but it said, "They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden, in the cool of the day and 00:24:01.860 --> 00:24:08.460 man and wife hid themselves from his presence." So he's elaborating further in this verse eight on the idea of temple. 00:24:08.600 --> 00:24:11.180 Verse seven, remember they're clothed in the glory of God? 00:24:12.060 --> 00:24:15.460 Just like the Shekinah glory in the old Testament, the presence of God? 00:24:15.500 --> 00:24:17.640 And the temple in the old Testament, that the presence of God dwelled. 00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:22.220 And you could be clothed in that glory of God. 00:24:22.260 --> 00:24:29.320 When the children Israel ran from Pharaoh, it tells us that the glory cloud of God separated the army of Egypt from Israel to 00:24:29.320 --> 00:24:29.980 protect them. 00:24:30.340 --> 00:24:31.060 That glory cloud. 00:24:32.200 --> 00:24:34.820 When they wandered through the wilderness, that glory cloud directed them. 00:24:35.040 --> 00:24:39.150 That glory cloud with Adam and Eve here in the garden of Eden and now they know it's been gone. 00:24:39.200 --> 00:24:40.000 Now they're naked. 00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:43.760 All of a sudden, verse eight they hear the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden, the cool of the day. 00:24:43.760 --> 00:24:46.160 Now, this is an interesting way to translate this in the Hebrew. 00:24:46.680 --> 00:24:51.600 This statement in Hebrew, it's accurately translated, but I think there's a better way to translate it. 00:24:51.700 --> 00:24:52.880 Let me just share this with you. 00:24:53.100 --> 00:24:54.700 They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden. 00:24:55.500 --> 00:24:58.520 This idea of walking literally just translates as His presence. 00:24:59.860 --> 00:25:04.060 So His presence is coming near them in the garden and it says in the cool of the day. 00:25:04.140 --> 00:25:06.860 Now this word cool is really also interesting in Hebrew. 00:25:07.320 --> 00:25:11.000 This word cool, the only time it's translated as cool in Hebrew is in this verse. 00:25:12.600 --> 00:25:19.600 Nearly every other time it's translated, it's translated as "wind" or "spirit" talking about the 00:25:19.600 --> 00:25:20.160 Holy Spirit. 00:25:21.760 --> 00:25:27.820 And so when you give that kind of understanding to this passage of scripture, I realized when translators translate, they just have to kind of pick a word that fits. 00:25:27.880 --> 00:25:30.970 And when you're talking about a garden, cool makes sense, the cool of the day. 00:25:31.520 --> 00:25:34.520 But there's a much more vivid expression taking place here. 00:25:35.060 --> 00:25:42.060 And what he's saying here is, look, they realized that God's presence wasn't clouding them anymore, and all of a sudden now God's presence is coming back into the 00:25:42.100 --> 00:25:46.040 garden and they recognize his presence from the rushing of this wind. 00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:49.230 Remind you have any New Testament passage? 00:25:50.900 --> 00:25:51.880 Acts 2, perhaps? 00:25:53.060 --> 00:25:56.260 The Holy Spirit when it comes into the church like a mighty rushing wind. 00:25:57.880 --> 00:26:05.120 And so here you see in Genesis 3:8, the presence of God here in what's described as by theologians as the first temple 00:26:05.120 --> 00:26:07.960 coming into the lives of these individuals. 00:26:07.980 --> 00:26:09.460 And what's their response? 00:26:11.240 --> 00:26:13.380 They run. 00:26:14.450 --> 00:26:16.820 They hide from God. 00:26:17.940 --> 00:26:19.410 How true is this of us today? 00:26:21.640 --> 00:26:22.260 We mess up. 00:26:24.240 --> 00:26:25.130 What's in your human nature? 00:26:25.280 --> 00:26:26.360 To run right for God? 00:26:28.060 --> 00:26:28.500 Or to run away? 00:26:30.720 --> 00:26:31.500 God, I'm not worthy. 00:26:32.400 --> 00:26:35.840 God, I got to go back and prove myself and God can't come before you right now. 00:26:36.020 --> 00:26:38.410 Look, I want to be at church, but I got to get my life together first. 00:26:39.200 --> 00:26:44.360 And soon as I get everything else in order, then I'll be okay to come to God. 00:26:46.820 --> 00:26:49.430 From the beginning of the garden, this has been the actions of man. 00:26:49.780 --> 00:26:53.280 Create religion, run from God and make myself perfect, then come before the Lord. 00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.780 And what God is demonstrating in here, in the midst of Adam and Eve's sin, is that doesn't work. 00:27:02.480 --> 00:27:07.680 There's only one cure for the wickedness of the heart, the destruction of sin. 00:27:09.440 --> 00:27:11.400 And it's not more of you. 00:27:13.300 --> 00:27:16.220 You don't need a better version of you. 00:27:18.020 --> 00:27:18.960 You need a new you. 00:27:20.660 --> 00:27:25.700 And being dead and Adam and Eve partaking this fruit, we don't have the ability to bring that life within us. 00:27:27.980 --> 00:27:30.810 It requires something else. 00:27:31.100 --> 00:27:38.200 And so in Genesis 3:9, it starts to explain us, how God responds in the midst of Adam and 00:27:38.200 --> 00:27:38.960 Eve's sin. 00:27:39.000 --> 00:27:46.100 It says this, "Then the Lord God called to the man and said to him, 'Where are you?'" Now, verse 00:27:46.100 --> 00:27:48.080 nine I want you to know from God's perspective is rhetorical. 00:27:50.440 --> 00:27:51.660 God doesn't wonder where you are. 00:27:53.160 --> 00:27:54.600 God knows exactly where you are. 00:27:54.620 --> 00:28:00.700 That's why it's kind of preposterous to think before God you can cover yourself or you can run and hide from it and it will just eventually go away. 00:28:02.980 --> 00:28:10.280 Rather, the reason God's asking this question, it's not because he needs to find Adam and Eve, it's because he wants Adam and Eve to recognize 00:28:10.280 --> 00:28:12.180 where they are in relationship to him. 00:28:14.360 --> 00:28:21.480 You think just one chapter before, this beautiful relationship they had before God and all of a sudden this chaos happens and now they're running like mad men 00:28:21.480 --> 00:28:26.460 and women through this garden with barely anything on thinking about these talking snakes everywhere. 00:28:26.460 --> 00:28:27.480 Why did we listen to him? 00:28:29.360 --> 00:28:30.450 God is like, "What are you doing? 00:28:33.600 --> 00:28:34.840 Where are you? 00:28:36.740 --> 00:28:41.060 Where are you?" Verse 10, "He said, 'I heard the sound of you in the garden. 00:28:41.200 --> 00:28:47.180 I was afraid because I was naked so I hid myself.' He said, 'Who told you that you were naked? 00:28:48.200 --> 00:28:55.260 Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?'' What God is drawing out of Adam and Eve 00:28:55.260 --> 00:28:58.670 is where their brokenness is. 00:29:00.100 --> 00:29:04.400 In verse 12 and 13, though they respond one more way to sin that I think is important to recognize. 00:29:05.020 --> 00:29:08.500 "Man said, 'The woman who you gave to be with me. 00:29:08.660 --> 00:29:13.340 She gave me from the tree and I ate.'" Rather than own it up, he's like, "It's her fault! 00:29:13.460 --> 00:29:20.560 Whatever you're thinking about doing God, take it out on her." And then verse 13, "Then the Lord God said to the woman, 00:29:20.560 --> 00:29:21.860 what is it that you have done? 00:29:21.880 --> 00:29:26.680 And the woman said, 'The serpent deceived me.'" They're blaming. 00:29:28.140 --> 00:29:28.820 Back and forth. 00:29:30.300 --> 00:29:32.140 And then God brings some healing words. 00:29:33.920 --> 00:29:35.800 Religion doesn't work. 00:29:36.680 --> 00:29:37.620 Running doesn't work. 00:29:38.400 --> 00:29:39.460 Blaming doesn't work. 00:29:40.320 --> 00:29:41.500 So what works? 00:29:42.760 --> 00:29:48.200 If I'm created for what Genesis 1 and 2 describes, what works for my soul to connect in that way? 00:29:49.100 --> 00:29:56.140 If you read verses 14 and 19 I'm going to have time to go through all of that, but verses 14 and 19, God then turns to Adam and Eve and he starts to talk about the 00:29:56.180 --> 00:29:56.860 curse on the earth now. 00:29:57.840 --> 00:29:58.460 And here's what's interesting. 00:29:59.220 --> 00:30:01.660 When he starts talking about the curse on the earth, the first one he talks to is the woman. 00:30:02.640 --> 00:30:06.500 And he talks about the pain of childbirth and relationship to her husband. 00:30:07.620 --> 00:30:14.810 And then he turns to Adam and says, and then cursed is the ground which you toil by the sweat of your brow and the blood that you drip. 00:30:15.520 --> 00:30:17.240 You're going to recognize your need for God. 00:30:18.020 --> 00:30:23.900 Now what he's saying is this, that in relationship, he says to the woman, there's going to be adversity. 00:30:24.960 --> 00:30:27.860 He turns to the man, he says, look, in the workforce, there's going to be adversity. 00:30:28.360 --> 00:30:30.150 When you put your hand to the plow, there's going to be adversity. 00:30:30.400 --> 00:30:33.320 Now this verse isn't saying women take care of the home. 00:30:33.360 --> 00:30:34.330 Men are the only people that work. 00:30:34.340 --> 00:30:40.830 That's not what this verse is saying, but I think he is correlating this to the identity of what it means to be made in the image of God between men and women. 00:30:42.480 --> 00:30:43.380 Ladies, you want to work, work. 00:30:43.460 --> 00:30:45.820 This is not what this verse says. 00:30:45.820 --> 00:30:46.870 Now guys, you can't have birth. 00:30:47.520 --> 00:30:52.780 But this passage in scripture is looking to the identity of us being created uniquely in the image of God. 00:30:53.220 --> 00:30:54.480 And God is speaking into that. 00:30:54.500 --> 00:30:56.460 And the reason he's doing that is to say this to you. 00:30:57.080 --> 00:31:03.900 You're going to go through times in life that looked difficult, and that difficult should remind you of your need for Jesus. 00:31:07.840 --> 00:31:09.240 This world is no longer your home. 00:31:12.670 --> 00:31:14.950 But God is going to create a solution for your soul. 00:31:16.840 --> 00:31:20.480 And in verse 15 in the middle of all of that, he expresses what that is. 00:31:22.260 --> 00:31:27.920 He says, "Now I will put enmity," he's saying this to the serpent, "between you and the woman. 00:31:29.320 --> 00:31:31.560 Between your seed and her seed. 00:31:32.880 --> 00:31:40.190 He shall bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel." And this is the first presentation of the coming of Jesus. 00:31:42.120 --> 00:31:43.800 Notice it never talks about the seed of the man. 00:31:46.140 --> 00:31:49.880 But it says from the seed of a woman, emphasizing a virgin birth. 00:31:51.900 --> 00:31:54.220 From the seed of the woman, this one would come. 00:31:55.780 --> 00:31:57.600 And he will crush the head of the serpent. 00:31:57.940 --> 00:31:59.500 This is the show authority and kingship. 00:32:00.640 --> 00:32:03.640 This King dominates and will crush, but he suffers a heel wound. 00:32:03.640 --> 00:32:07.110 And we know this happens to Jesus on the cross when he's nailed to the cross. 00:32:08.720 --> 00:32:10.620 But this for us becomes our freedom. 00:32:12.240 --> 00:32:14.820 That Satan represents darkness and sin. 00:32:16.160 --> 00:32:22.380 And his kingdom is being crushed so that the real King will rule over our hearts again. 00:32:23.680 --> 00:32:25.080 And then God gives us this statement. 00:32:26.340 --> 00:32:33.500 And again, this is one of those passages when you understand it in the Hebrew text it sings to our soul again, but he says this, verse 20, "Now, the man called 00:32:33.500 --> 00:32:37.480 his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. 00:32:38.680 --> 00:32:48.480 And the God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them." First death in 00:32:48.480 --> 00:32:48.940 scripture. 00:32:50.200 --> 00:32:51.110 And who does it? 00:32:52.420 --> 00:32:55.020 It's God. 00:32:55.940 --> 00:32:57.020 God takes the life of an animal. 00:32:58.520 --> 00:33:03.900 A sacrifice and he clothes Adam and Eve. 00:33:04.180 --> 00:33:05.500 In the garments of skin. 00:33:06.920 --> 00:33:08.260 Interesting thought about this word, garments. 00:33:10.040 --> 00:33:13.480 It's the same word used in Hebrew for a priestly garment. 00:33:15.200 --> 00:33:20.560 When a priest would go into the temple, into the presence of God, they would be clothed in this garment. 00:33:22.640 --> 00:33:23.260 God's presence again. 00:33:25.700 --> 00:33:31.860 God promises Genesis 3:15, one would come to rescue you. 00:33:33.220 --> 00:33:35.740 And as an illustration that rescue, he makes a sacrifice. 00:33:37.240 --> 00:33:41.340 And he clothes Adam and Eve in the presence of God, which they had lost because of their sin. 00:33:43.820 --> 00:33:46.300 God makes all things new. 00:33:48.040 --> 00:33:50.080 We try to fix our solutions by our strength. 00:33:51.560 --> 00:33:52.840 We cover religiously. 00:33:54.880 --> 00:33:55.600 We try to hide. 00:33:56.880 --> 00:33:57.740 We try to blame. 00:33:59.340 --> 00:34:00.240 But you can't fool God. 00:34:02.420 --> 00:34:02.980 It's impossible. 00:34:05.100 --> 00:34:08.380 God made us beautifully and I think that's still true. 00:34:10.139 --> 00:34:16.480 Everyone in this room, everyone in the world, God made you beautifully. 00:34:18.400 --> 00:34:21.480 And at the same time, you're beautifully broken. 00:34:23.639 --> 00:34:24.060 You're broken. 00:34:26.320 --> 00:34:27.179 How is that healed? 00:34:29.360 --> 00:34:30.739 By the one who makes things new. 00:34:33.120 --> 00:34:37.000 You can't find the solution until you correctly identify the problem. 00:34:37.929 --> 00:34:40.350 It's not about just making things better. 00:34:42.060 --> 00:34:44.330 It's about making things completely new. 00:34:46.060 --> 00:34:53.080 Paul wanted us to understand this thought in scripture, so much so that when you get to Romans 5, for the first five chapters of Romans, Paul's going on and on about our sinfulness, 00:34:53.340 --> 00:34:56.659 because we have a hard time understanding the depravity of our lives. 00:34:57.260 --> 00:34:58.680 Sin brings death. 00:35:00.440 --> 00:35:07.800 And he wants us to understand that full picture and so in Romans 5, he goes from the New Testament, he dips all the way back 00:35:07.800 --> 00:35:10.480 into the Old Testament to the time of Adam and Eve and look what he says. 00:35:10.620 --> 00:35:17.640 He says, "Therefore, just as through one man, sin entered into the world and death through sin and so death spread to all men because 00:35:17.640 --> 00:35:21.660 all had sinned." You want to know why things aren't the way they were intended to be when God created them? 00:35:23.520 --> 00:35:28.380 It's because sin has permeated this world and to the point that has infected all of us and so all have sinned. 00:35:29.920 --> 00:35:31.100 Verse 17 goes on further. 00:35:31.100 --> 00:35:38.160 He says this, "For if by the transgression of the one, death rang through the one much those who receive 00:35:38.220 --> 00:35:42.060 the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. 00:35:44.880 --> 00:35:50.220 "But God." I love that in Romans 5:8, it's that famous verse, "But God demonstrates his love towards us. 00:35:50.560 --> 00:35:55.660 And while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." It's given us the illustration. 00:35:56.440 --> 00:36:03.460 In the thought of this series that we're going through together, one of the things we've titled 00:36:03.460 --> 00:36:10.460 this as "Kingdom Come." In the beginning, God created everything perfect in his kingdom and for us to enjoy his presence and rest in him forever. 00:36:10.940 --> 00:36:17.480 But man sins, and he tells us in Genesis 2:7, God forms us out of the dust of the ground, God breathes in us the breath of life. 00:36:17.560 --> 00:36:19.570 Man becomes a living being, but then man sins. 00:36:21.260 --> 00:36:28.440 And the beauty of what that kingdom was intended to be for us to experience, we've been separated from because there's death, But 00:36:28.440 --> 00:36:30.520 in Jesus, there's life. 00:36:32.260 --> 00:36:37.820 To tie this together, I want us to see this beauty of God's kingdom from Genesis throughout all of scripture. 00:36:38.340 --> 00:36:43.060 But in John 20 I think there's this beautiful illustration that ties it all together. 00:36:43.980 --> 00:36:45.440 Jesus does this interesting thing. 00:36:45.840 --> 00:36:47.500 This is after Jesus's resurrection. 00:36:47.640 --> 00:36:54.700 It says, "When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut, where the disciples were for fear of the 00:36:54.700 --> 00:37:01.760 Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, 'Peace be with you.'" You think about the beauty 00:37:01.760 --> 00:37:03.890 of Jesus' first statement to his disciples. 00:37:06.000 --> 00:37:08.020 What would Jesus utter when he sees them for the first time? 00:37:10.300 --> 00:37:11.790 His statement is one of kingdom representation. 00:37:13.560 --> 00:37:14.220 Peace. 00:37:15.100 --> 00:37:15.500 Rest. 00:37:17.020 --> 00:37:18.000 Peace be with you. 00:37:18.940 --> 00:37:24.380 "And when he had said this, he showed them both his hands and his side and the disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 00:37:24.840 --> 00:37:31.840 So Jesus said to them, again, 'Peace be with you.'" How much does 00:37:31.840 --> 00:37:32.700 your soul need that? 00:37:34.880 --> 00:37:43.120 To stop fighting and let Jesus be enough and the rest in him and 00:37:43.180 --> 00:37:44.220 be loved by him. 00:37:46.120 --> 00:37:46.840 He knows you mess up. 00:37:48.940 --> 00:37:53.880 He knows you aren't perfect and he wants to make things new in your life. 00:37:55.660 --> 00:37:57.020 "Jesus said to them peace be with you. 00:37:57.060 --> 00:38:00.100 As the Father has sent me, I send you." And then he does this weird thing, verse 22. 00:38:00.780 --> 00:38:05.540 "And when he has had this, he breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy spirit." Now that is weird. 00:38:06.830 --> 00:38:13.000 You're thinking that this must be one of those first century things that we don't relate to today. 00:38:13.060 --> 00:38:14.800 Like greeting one another with a holy kiss. 00:38:14.820 --> 00:38:15.210 We're not interested. 00:38:15.920 --> 00:38:18.860 But I want you to know for the disciples, this was weird too. 00:38:19.680 --> 00:38:23.700 Jesus comes in and he's like "[blowing sounds] everybody." That is a weird thing to do. 00:38:23.800 --> 00:38:25.140 But why is Jesus doing that? 00:38:26.900 --> 00:38:28.610 It's connecting the story together. 00:38:30.300 --> 00:38:34.560 God breathed into man, man becomes a living being, created in the image of God. 00:38:34.880 --> 00:38:40.640 Man's sin comes in, separates God and man, and then Jesus triumphs over the grave and what's Jesus do? 00:38:41.280 --> 00:38:42.480 Peace be with you. 00:38:44.740 --> 00:38:46.700 I'm making all things now. 00:38:49.620 --> 00:38:52.280 Genesis 3 shows us the destruction of sin. 00:38:53.740 --> 00:38:56.180 But at the same time it shows us what to do with that sin. 00:38:57.620 --> 00:38:58.280 It's not religion. 00:39:00.400 --> 00:39:01.900 It's not running, or hiding. 00:39:03.400 --> 00:39:03.990 It's not blaming. 00:39:05.780 --> 00:39:11.440 It's to take wherever your heart is right now and coming before Jesus and saying, "God, you're enough. 00:39:12.880 --> 00:39:13.820 You are enough. 00:39:14.940 --> 00:39:16.500 Make me new. 00:39:17.800 --> 00:39:19.010 I screwed up yesterday. 00:39:20.240 --> 00:39:25.440 I going to screw up tomorrow, but God in you, there is joy forever more. 00:39:26.880 --> 00:39:31.820 Let that peace rule in my heart and let you be enough."