Mother's Day: Eve Series

Mother’s Day: Eve

Scott Bayles, pastor

Scripture: Genesis 3-4

Blooming Grove Christian Church: 5/14/2017

Good morning, welcome to the Grove and Happy Mother’s Day!

If anyone deserves a celebration, it’s Mom! And today at the Grove we’re happy to celebrate all the special women in our lives. So whether you are a mom or hope to someday be a mom or just have a mom, we’re glad you’re here and my prayer is that worshipping here at the Grove this morning will not only encourage Mom’s heart, but inspire the rest of the family as well.

My wife told me several days ago that all she wanted for Mother’s Day was a nice long nap. I think there are a lot of moms that can sympathize with that request. Mother’s Day should be a day for Mom to rest and recuperate from all her motherly duties.

ILL. I’m reminded of two kids who told mother that they would handle all the cooking on Mother's Day. Well three pots, two skillets, four mixing bowls, eleven spoons, five measuring cups and one whole roll of paper towels later Mom said, “That was the best Jell-O I ever had!”

Let’s face it...without our Moms, we'd be a disaster! When you scraped your knee, had a rough day at school, or needed advice, she was always there to give you a hug and listen with love. Moms play an important role in our lives and they also play an important role in the Bible. The Canon of Scripture is a roll call of great (and some not-so-great) moms.

It all begins in the book of Genesis with the very first mom—Eve. The very name, Eve, means mother. The Bible says, “Then the man—Adam—named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all who live” (Genesis 3:20 NLT). Eve’s not just a mom; she’s the mom. She’s your mom and my mom. She’s the mother of whole human race. But her story is not too dissimilar from most of yours. It is a story of love and loss, failure and forgiveness. A story of a fragmented family and a mom struggling to figure this whole parenting thing out.

So, if you have a Bible or an app on your phone, I’d like to invite you to open up to the book of Genesis. We’ll look at parts of chapter three and four as I highlight three relatable and relevant pieces of Eve’s story.

The first piece of her story I’d like to touch on—and probably the part she’s known best for—is her sin.

• HER SIN

I’m sure you know the story. Adam and Eve lived in this perfect paradise that God built for them—the Garden of Eden. They enjoyed a uniquely profound communion and connection with God. Everything was wonderful. God gave them only one rule: Don’t eat the fruit from the tree in the middle of the Garden. But then came the serpent.

Satan—either possessing a serpent or posing as one—targeted Eve. He persuaded her that God wouldn’t really punish her for eating the fruit and that in eating it, she would become like God himself, knowing good and evil.

The Bible says, “The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it” (Genesis 3:6 NLT).

Eve has gone down in history as the woman who made THE monumental, mind-blowing, affects-everybody forever mistake. And she’s never lived it down.

ILL. I’m pretty sure this story’s not in the Bible, but… One day Adam was out hunting with his two boys and came up to the Garden of Eden where he and Eve had been kicked out for eating the forbidden fruit. Adam stared at the Garden and one of his boys said, “Daddy, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?” Adam chocked back a tear and said, “Boys, that is the Garden of Eden right there…that’s where we used to live until Mommy ate us out of house and home!”

ILL. Someone once asked, “If Eve sacrificed the future of the whole human race for an apple, what would she do for a Klondike Bar?”

The truth is—Eve’s sin was serious. The lies of the serpent and the promise of momentary gratification caused her to throw everything away and defy the God who created her and cared for her. Her sin changed everything. It set off a chain reaction that affected her children, her children’s children and every generation since.

But let’s be honest. Would you or I have done any better? Have we done better? First of all, throughout Scripture it’s really Adam who’s held responsible for Eve’s sin. But we’ll get to his side of the story on Father’s Day. The reality is—all of us make mistakes. The Bible reminds us, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 NIV).