Never Have A Discussion With A Talking Snake! - Genesis 3:1-7 Series

I’m really glad that you are here, either online or here, because it makes a statement about you that you are interested in growing spiritually. That’s something we have in common. That we want to grow spiritually. That’s what Calvary Chapel is about. You know the value of learning. We never stop learning. We never stop growing spiritually. We need that. We need to understand more about God, more about His word. As we come together and do that it empowers us for our lives.

I spend hours each week studying the Bible and then thinking about what does God want to say to me and then what He wants to say to you. And then I try to live it in the course of a week. What does this look like? How can I experience this? Because I know when I stand up here on Sunday morning, it’s an opportunity for God to speak to you. Yes, I’m sharing a message. But there’s something about what God has done inside of me that’s going to pass through whether I stumble or stutter or whatever. It's God’s word that’s being shared and it’s so empowering for us and powerful for our hearts.

Today I’m going to share something that all of us need if we’re disciples in Christ. We must understand this idea and it will be very powerful and it will speak to your heart. Because I’m going to look at the story of Eve and her discussion with the snake. And the story of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness. And the story of Peter when he was tempted and ended up lying three times, disowning Christ. I’ll share out of those three stories. Mainly we’ll be in Genesis 3, but I’ll share with you things about temptation. Because I’m convinced that we have a misunderstanding. We think that Satan likes to take untruths, lies and that’s how he changes us or tempts us. But I’m convinced more and more that he uses the truth to mess with our heads. I’ll show you what that looks like. I think it will better prepare you to handle your week this week, to maybe see some of those temptations before they come at you and you’ll be able to address those in a way that will help you to be able to move forward more effectively in your life.

Now to start that I want to look at the story about Peter. Remember in Peter’s life, what he did was he lied three times. He was tempted. Peter’s life was like that. He was an impulsive guy. But what happened in Peter’s life when he got a little bit further along in what was going on as he wrote these words to us in 1 Peter 5:8 to warn us. He wants everybody to know this. He says – Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour, someone to tear apart, someone to mess with. And you’re not going to see it. He says it’s like a lion, you don’t even see him till he pounces on you. You’re going to miss this if you’re not careful. Be alert. Be sober minded. We need to take that warning today. We’re going to look at how Satan tempted Eve and we’re going to see that she wasn’t ready for it. She didn’t understand. It came at her from a blindside. We’ve got to get that idea.

When Jesus was describing the work of the devil, He said this: The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. He comes to steal our joy, our vitality. He comes to kill relationships. He wants to do that. He wants to kill them. He wants to destroy our hearts. That is his objective and he does it in a sneaky way. We have to have a plan. We have to understand what that looks like. We have to recognize this and be ready for it because sometimes we don’t even see it coming and we have to know what that looks like. So let me show you.

Let’s go to the first verse in Genesis 3. It starts this way. Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

The first thing I want to point out is this. He uses these words and he talks about this serpent being the crafty one. Very crafty. The word crafty means deceptive, tricky is the idea there. But I want you to know that this serpent was created by God. Read the rest of the verse. It says he was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. This is a God-created crafty serpent. And when God looked at all His creation He said this is good. So point number one we must understand when it comes to temptation is that Satan uses good things to start the conversation, good things to get us into trouble. So Satan says, “Okay, I’m going to pick the snake, something that’s good, in order to get into the conversation with Eve.” Very important to understand that Satan has the ability to parade himself with something good.