TEXT: Genesis 3:1-19
TITLE: The Wages of Sin on the Family - SIN WAGES WAR ON THE FAMILY
SERIES: Home Health Care
TOPIC: Making good choices for the family
OCCASION: Burnside Christian Church, July 13, 2008
PROP.: It is sin that has wreaked havoc in our families. Poor decisions destroy the family! This sermon shows the effect sin has on the family and furthermore, the remedy for that sin!
INTRODUCTION: House inspection: Whenever you buy a home, one thing you must have done is a termite inspection. Why? Because these little pests, over time, will ruin the foundation of your home!
This morning, I want to continue to inspect our home - the family. There is a destructive force that is attacking the foundation of family. It has been eating away at relationships. Causing bitterness and divorce.
That destructive force is sin!
Sin is the most destructive choice!
I know what you’re thinking, and the answer is YES, sin is even more destructive than my fists of fury.
T.S.: Let’s look at how sin wages war on the family!
Last week I told you about the blessings or the gifts that God gives the family..let’s recall those four gifts before we get started:
I. The first family WAS blessed!
Last week, as you recall, I told you, God blessed the family by:
a. by being created in His image
b. with a great job! --be fruitful and multiply, name the animals
c. with Clear boundaries -- “Do not eat of the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of
good and evil.”
d. with the gift of togetherness!
Life was good! Life was perfect! Life was how it was supposed to be!
But something tragic is about to take place in chapter 3.
Let’s look at the effect SIN has on the FAMILY!
In fact, I’ve entitled today’s sermon: Sin wages war on the family!
Turn to Genesis chapter 3. This will be our text for today.
(I’ve entitled chapter 3: SNAKES ON A PLANE? TRY SNAKES IN YOUR GARDEN!)
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, ’You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?" We have no idea how long life was perfect before the serpent came to the woman! We don’t know if this is their first encounter or if the snake had befriended the woman. We do know that she was not scared, shocked, or amazed at a talking snake.
2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ’You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ " 4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
Today’s sermon has again, one point! Don’t miss it! Here it is:
II. The first family was destroyed because of POOR CHOICES!
Adam and Eve were faced with a choice: Eat the fruit. Don’t eat the fruit.
Their choice was a poor one and that choice had consequences!
I feel that we need to clarify
A. The difference between circumstances and consequences
Circumstance = a situation you find yourself in that you have no control over.
Cancer is a circumstance! You have no control over when or if you’ll contract cancer.
Consequence = a situation you find yourself in that is the result of poor choices.
Having a hang-over is a consequence of the poor choice of being drunk!
I want to ask: Is your family being destroyed by YOUR choices?
If you’re family isn’t the way you want it be, you first need to recognize: Is it because of circumstances? Or is it because of consequences?
And if it’s because of a choice you’ve made, here’s the good news, you can decide NOT to choose that in the future!!
ILLUSTRATION: If you’ve ever gotten something at a restaurant that you didn’t like, you can make the choice to NEVER get that ever again! You learn from the bad choices in life! Now that doesn’t mean that there aren’t consequences, that just means that you can learn that you don’t want to do THAT again!
ILLUSTRATION: Electric fence on the Franke farm! I had no idea what just happened…but I didn’t like it!
Adam and Eve were faced with a choice! They made a choice. That choice had consequences that far impacted their family…
POOR CHOICES HAVE CONSEQUENCES!
B. The consequences of their choices
Let’s continue reading our text today…verse 7 of chapter 3:
7 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. you’ve heard it said that ignorance is bliss. In the case of Adam and Eve, their ignorance of wrong was BLISS! Don’t let people convince you that you are missing out on something you know isn’t right!
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."
The first consequence Adam and Eve faced because of their decision was:
--Shame (vs. 8 - 11)
Their eyes were opened, and they realized they were naked. So what did they do? They hid! Shame always leads to hiding. They didn’t want anyone to see how they REALLY were! Are you and your family in hiding? You don’t want people to get to close to you or they might discover the truth! “If people only knew how we REALLY were…or if People only knew how she really talks to me…” We want to hide the real us because we are embarrassed and ashamed of how we really are. And so we put on this fake image of being the perfect family! I pray that we will come out of hiding! That we will not be afraid to be exposed before God…before our church family. We need to realize that as long as sin is a part of our world, perfection will never be a part of our family! It is my prayer that this sermon series on family would cause us to come out of hiding! For husbands to step up and take the responsibility for their family. For wives to submit willingly to the leadership and love of their husbands. That children would obediently honor their mom’s and dad’s. And perhaps that is going to take some repentance here this month. It going to take the courage to apologize to God and to your family for the way that you’ve behaved. Let’s together strive for that which God designed our families to enjoy!
Let’s look at another consequence to their decision: Verse 11 of chapter 3...
11 And God said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" 12 The man said, "The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." 13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
Another consequence that comes as a result of poor decisions is:
---Blame (vs. 11 - 13)
“It’s not my fault” syndrome
Adam is trying to turn his consequences into circumstances. He’s trying to say: Look, it’s really not my fault at all. It’s my environment. It’s how I grew up. It’s the parents I had. Adam is becoming good at blaming others for his failures!
He blames the woman first.
Then he blames God: It was the woman…the woman YOU put here! See, it’s really not my fault. It’s your fault, God!
Listen to me now: At the end of the day, we are ALL responsible for the choices we make in life. We will each be held accountable for the choices that WE make!
God then goes to the woman and asks her the same question. What is her reaction? She blames the snake - Satan!
But God’s too smart for excuses! God knows everything. And because He knows everything this makes God an excellent judge!
And judgment day is coming for Adam and Eve: Let’s continue reading verses 14 - 19
--Other consequences (vs. 14 - 19)
14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust all the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring [a] and hers; he will crush [b] your head, and you will strike his heel."
SATAN’S CONSEQUENCES - This was the first messianic prophecy! God told Satan that he would be defeated and it would be through the offspring of woman. And so Jesus came to this world, crucified on a cross for the sins of the world. And when Jesus rose from the grave three days later after being put into the tomb, Satan was defeated!
16 To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."
WOMAN’S CONSEQUENCES -
I think we’re all aware of the pain of child birth…even those of us who are males and will never give birth ourselves can certainly sympathize with our wives. But let’s discuss part b of this verse. “Your desire will be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”
God set the husband up to be the head of the household. This doesn’t mean that the husband is the dictator, or the slave driver and that the wife is the doormat servant. IT doesn’t mean that the wife isn’t valuable or meaningful. It doesn’t mean that the wife has no opinion or say. The consequence of the woman is NOT that husband will be the head of the household. The consequence of the woman is that she will constantly desire the authority of her husband. Why is the husband the head of the home? Is it because men are better than women? Is it because men are smarter than women? Is it because women are subservient to men? No!
Women are equal but different. Everyone say that with me. “Equal but different.” God loves men and women the same. Women and men are very different. Each one has different strengths. And in His wisdom, God has brought man and woman together to compliment one another.
But the consequence that the woman has as a result of her decision to sin, she will usurp the authority of her husband.
Well let’s look at
MAN’S CONSEQUENCES -
17 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ’You must not eat of it,’
"Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."
The consequence of the man’s decision to sin is found in verse 19: By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground.
Man’s curse is man’s job. Men are consumed with work. We complain about our jobs, we obsess about our jobs, we are addicted to our jobs. We will find no satisfaction in our jobs. And this is our curse!
(Cain killed Abel…you’ve heard it said that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree…that the kids become like the parents. How true it is! Cain killed Abel because of jealousy! Cain wanted what Abel had - God’s acceptance. Eve ate of the forbidden fruit because she couldn’t have it!)
C. How did they get to this point with God? 3:1
Adam and Eve had it good! They had an intimate relationship with their Maker! So what went wrong? How did they go from walking with God, to hiding from God?
A. God’s word was questioned?
“Is THAT really what God said?” Satan tried to convince Eve what God really said. Satan did this when he tried to tempt Jesus in the wilderness. He was trying to twist God’s word to mean something that God never intended!
--As you look around in society, there is a dangerous game being played out. God’s word is constantly being questioned and twisted.
“I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me.” Jesus isn’t the ONLY way to heaven. Whatever works for you. Islam. Hindu. Whatever makes you happy.
“Wives, submit to your husbands” What? Noooo. That’s just tradition. That’s just sexist. That’s just wrong!
It’s a dangerous thing to begin to question God. To begin to doubt the truthfulness of His word. To listen to the world’s viewpoint on truth rather than God’s truth!
B. God’s Boundaries were exceeded
Last week, I told you that everything that God created has boundaries. Those boundaries were created for our good! Life works well as long as it is lived within those boundaries!
Adam and Eve tried to go beyond those boundaries. It was proving not to work out so well.
Maybe you’re here today, and you are wondering HOW your family has ended up the way it is? You had dreams and visions of how your family should have been…and as you look at it now, it’s not at all the way you pictured your family to be! How did get this way? And more importantly, how can I get it back to the way it used to be?
Maybe you’ve been living outside of the boundaries God would desire for you and your family! It‘s time to start living inside the boundaries God has set up
Here is the first step in getting your family back to the way God intended it be:
CONCLUSION: When God was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, he asked the question: “Where are you?” Why did God ask this question? Because God didn’t know where they were? No. God knows EVERYTHING! So why then did He ask the question? Because He wanted to know if they knew where they were! And today, I want you to evaluate your family situation and then answer the question: WHERE ARE YOU? This question that God asks is an indication that God truly, deeply desires a personal relationship with each of His children! Wherever you are in life, God wants you to be near Him!
Today, if you have a decision to make; maybe you are far from God this morning and you desire to draw close; whatever your decision, is today, please come and make this decision before God and these witnesses here today!
IF YOU HAVE SIN IN YOUR FAMILY, THE ONLY CURE…THE ONLY CURE…IS JESUS! Amen! Let’s stand and sing our hymn of decision.
