Daring To Be Loved Series

Daring to be Loved

Series: Daring Faith

Brad Bailey – November 4, 2018

Intro

We’re continuing in our Fall venture into the nature of faith.

Faith is stepping into what God has promised…and provides.

So we have engaged the nature of daring to move forward… daring to commit…daring to plant… and today… DARING TO BE LOVED.

That might not sound very daring… or even fitting to be considered something that requires faith. But it may be the very foundation of faith…the root of trust within us.

In the first book of the Bible…Genesis…which means the book of beginnings… we are told of how humanity chose to become independent…and what unfolds is telling. God describes life as a garden in which human lives flourishes in union with God. Human existence is at peace in the presence of it’s source. There is simply a warning…not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For evil does not exist…it would be separation from God. But they are drawn to distrust God’s goodness…and seek to become like God…and they are now in state of standing before God… but now in fear.

And as we read…

Genesis 3:7-10 (NIV)

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" 10 He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."

A depiction of what it means to now stand before the true and living God with whom we have created a separate nature that was never meant to be.

“I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." - Genesis 3:10

Naked…exposed. This is not merely the nakedness of the body…but of the soul… of being exposed for the separation they have caused. It is the shame of separation…like a child who has broken trust…one can try and pretend everything is the same…but it’s not. You have eaten from a tree that would bring the knowledge of evil…and it would now define you. And to the love of the one in whom your very existence lies…there may be love…but there is something between you…something we can’t simply shed…and the love exposes. [1]

This separate person could be referred to as our ego… the self that claims it’s independence of existence… a false and fragile form of self…. only a dying shell of what we were meant to be….but being so fragile…there is always a desperate need to defend itself.

And what does the ego do before the presence of God?

It tries to cover itself. It can certainly seem a bit humorous to think of sowing fig leaves… to cover one’s naked exposed self. But that is precisely what we do. We don’t want to stand exposed… so we cover ourselves…and hide behind whatever we can find.

If we consider the recent tragic hates crimes…shooting of Jewish lWithout faith in God’s love, we will become…

• Driven (tend to feel one “must” accomplish or succeed)

• Defensive (tend to react to responsibility for problems with anger, blame, excuses, etc)

• Demanding (tend to use others for personal attention and affirmation)

• Dangerous (tend to view some as enemies worthy of degrading or destroying)

Recent hate crimes… bombs mailed to those deemed enemies… shooting those attending a synagogue those deemed enemies… we may be given plenty of political explanation and meaning… but look at the root… and you will see an ego … fragile and threatened…desperate and dangerous.

If I am honest… there are elements of all these signs running in me in varying degrees.

The truth is that we will never be able to cover ourselves. What we lost was God and what we need is to be united with God again…inseparably united.

• Adam’s hope lies not in himself…no cover will suffice

• His hope lies not in making God some mere sentimental idea.

Hope lies in the power of God’s love …to provide…

This is what those closest to God’s heart rooted their hearts in.

As God was raising up a people to know him… David… would become king if Israel…but is referred to as a man after God’s heart.

Few would know they were a sinner more…and discover it so deeply.

In a book of poetic prayer… Psalms… he describes the destructiveness of sin… BUT then he speaks of God’s love…

Psalm 36:5 (NLT)

Your unfailing love, O LORD, is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds. [2]