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Genesis – People relating to God
Part 1
“Legends of the fall”
Text Genesis chapter 3
Begin
Start
Commence
Open
There is something refreshing and optimistic about these words
These words often bring visions or feelings of fall for me
I truly love fall
Going out in the early morning
The dew thick
Steam coming off the breath of the cows and horses
Just for a while early in the morning
Before it warms up
Before we truly begin the day
A nip in the air
Cool enough to need a jacket or vest
I always get a feeling of newness
Or a fresh start
Some think of spring
Or Summer
Some even winter
But
Fall has signified a new beginning in many ways for me
The start of a new calving season
Shipping last year’s calf crop
Planting the wheat pastures and watching as the once barren and dusty ground turns green almost over night
Deer,Duck and Elk Hunting
The start of a new School year
Or even in years past the end of the long hot days in the hayfield
A time to catch my breath
A time to unwind a bit
Sit on the porch and kick a pig a little more often
As we start a new direction here at Caney Creek
As we truly focus on discipleship
On your and my spiritual growth
As we focus on all ages
In all areas from diaper to grave
I think it is fitting that fall is in the air
And
I think it is more fitting that we will begin at the beginning
The very word Genesis means
“Beginnings”
Or “ origins”
I also think it is fitting that it is the “Fall”—That causes us to begin to truly see Gods plan
The book of Genesis is where we first begin learning about
God and his nature
About homes and families
Marriage
Sin
Ethnic diversity
The Nations and Languages
About His plan for us and where we fit in
The book of Genesis builds for us the very foundations of our faith
In this great book
Written so long ago
We see God’s creation of this world
The first 2 chapters give of the very basis of our belief that God is the creator
It gives us the first glimpse of the one God in three persons
With just a word
God created all that we know
We may not understand how this all works
We may never know in this life how this all works
But this is where faith comes in
We read
We trust
And
We believe
Just like the very air we breathe
Most of us don’t completely understand the biological and physiological functions of the body
Or how the human body uses Oxygen from the atmosphere
But we trust
And
Believe
That the air
The air we cannot even see
Will sustain our lives
That’s faith
Just a little
But faith all the same
As the story of creation unfolds
We see that
We-- us
Humans
People
Are the final creation
God made us in his image
Male and Female
So that he could love us
So that he would have someone to love
God was not lonely
He was and is and always will be complete
We see
God the Father in the very opening of the book
God the Holy Spirit just a couple of verses later
And
God the Son makes his appearance in chapter 3
3 in one
Known as the trinity
The very foundations of our faith
Once again the concept of the Trinity is outside the complete or clear understanding by our limited human mind
The concept is also a faith issue- a mystery that we cannot fully understand
But one we must readily accept
Genesis is not a complete history of mankind
It is not a exhaustive history of humanity
But instead Genesis is a history of
God relating to his people
And it is a history of
People relating to God
It is a history of God’s plan of redemption for his people
We started this morning with our Round pen bible studies
And
We began by looking at Genesis
We studied this morning about Adam and Eve
We looked at their creation
Their purpose
We looked at Gods plan for them
And
Then
We saw
Them make Choices
And we saw the consequence of those choices
We saw those choices change the direction of their lives
Life got hard
Let me preface with this
God’s plan
His master plan
That is his plan of salvation
His plan of redemption
His master plan cannot be altered
Satan as we will soon see tried
He tried in Genesis
He tried in the Gospels as he tempted Jesus
He tried as he watched Our Savior hang on that old cross
But he could not Change God’s plan
Man throughout time has tried
Tried so hard to Change God’s plan
Tried to change his mind
Tried to rewrite him
Or mold him into something they want
It ain’t happening—God does not change
But
We
As human beings
Those created by a loving God
Those that God loved so much
That he gave us free will
Can
Alter
The plans /or steps for our personal lives
The choices we make
The choices we don’t make
Can
Send us in many directions
Sin
Always has consequences
Every action in our lives
Has consequences
This is where we come to today in this first of 8 Sermons on people relating to God from Genesis
Let’s read Genesis Chapter 2 verses 8-21
And see God’s plan for humanity
And
How
Adam and Eve though wrong choices
Changed their story
But in no way changed God’s plan
8 Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. 9 The LORD God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Verses 10-14 describe the garden
Skipping to 15
15 The LORD God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. 16 But the LORD God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden— 17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”
Verses 18-21 describe the man’s job and the creation of the woman
God created man
God created woman
And
He created them so he could express his love
He placed them in a perfect place
Paradise
The garden
They had everything they could ever want or need
Imagine
No briars
No stickers
No fire ants or bull nettle
No hot or cold weather
A perfect environment in every way
So perfect in fact that they did not need to wear clothes
Nor did they have shame in their nakedness
And then
Then
Ya’ll have all heard about the snake
Old sneaky snake
Old slick
Satan
Came calling
Let’s read Genesis Chapter 3 verses 1-4
“The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the LORD God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”
2 “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. 3 “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”
4 “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. “
I want to really focus on this verse
Because this morning I want to really focus on Old Slicks plan
Satan’s plan of doubt
His plan of Discouragement
The snakes plan of Diversion
The serpents plan of Defeat
As I told you God’s plan involved creating us
Loving us
Providing for us
Caring for us
But we know that God did not want to force us to love him
Forced love is not love at all
So
Satan
Took a shot at altering the steps of the first 2 people on earth
And he takes a shot at all people daily
Notice the first thing that Satan did after introducing himself to Eve
He caused doubt to enter her mind
“Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”
Really?
He caused Eve to doubt God
He caused her to doubt God’s goodness
He caused her to doubt God’s love
He caused her to Doubt God's word
Notice in verse 4
After asking Eve about eating from the tree of the knowledge of Good and evil
She tells old sneaky snake ----we are not supposed to even touch it or we will die
God had told Adam and he had told her (verse 17)
“You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman.
We know now this was spiritual death and a death yet to come/not instant death
But either way he caused doubt
Then came the Discouragement
Satan discourages her
Verse 5
5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”
He is telling Eve
God does not want you to be like him
God does not truly love you
If he did why would he withhold something this pretty?
This sweet
This Good
And discouragement set in
In this same verse and the one prior
Satan
Sets a trap that leads to diversion
He causes her to first doubt God and his Goodness
Then he discourages her cause he to question God’s love and God’s motives
The he causes a diversion
This is one of Satan’s favorite tricks
He points to
Or even as I imagine
Holds up this fruit
We don’t know if it is an apple or a pear or what
It does not matter
But
Old slick
He tempts her with diversion
Gets her to focus on the fruit
Gets her to focus on the possibility of knowledge
Causes her to focus on herself and her desires
And diverts her from focusing on God
And
Then he unleashes his plan of defeat
Verses 6-7
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. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. 7 At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves
Satan wooed her
Sweet talked her
Lied to her
And she was defeated
Not killed
But
Defeated meaning she surrendered to temptation
She allowed sin into her life
And allowed
Sin into the lives of all humanity
Adam on the other hand ate what his wife offered
I don’t know where he was while Old slick was tempting his wife
But
I know where he should have been
He should have been right there
Shovel in hand
Chopping the head off that old snake
But
Instead he let his wife surrender to temptation
And then willingly surendered as well
The bible dose not says this
But
In my mind
I can hear God
Saying
" Where were you man"
What were you doing while your wife was being deceived?
So
With 2 bites of forbidden fruit
One bite coerced
One taken willingly
Humanity was plunged into sin— this is known as the fall
The fall of humanity
Adam and Eves personal steps were altered
But Skipping down to verse 20
We see God’s first hint of his plan of redemption
20 Then the man—Adam—named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all who live.[d] 21 And the LORD God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife.
Most everyone here are county people
Or at least have county roots
So
Let me ask you
Can you skin an animal without shedding blood?
In order to remove the skin of a critter
In order to make clothes of those skins
The animal in question must be killed
Redemption
Restoration
Requires
A blood sacrifice
God clothed them
And then
He protected them from the other tree in the middle of the garden by banning them from the garden
Many think this harsh
But once again this is a sign for us
Sin causes separation from the very God who created and loves us
So why did they need protection from the other tree
Why did God
Place Angel with a sword at the entrance of the garden to prevent them for coming back
In their new sinful state
God new that Adam and Eve
Would never find peace if they were to live forever
He knew that in their knew sinful state they would suffer for years
He also knew that their only hope was death
Death in this life , so they could experience the glory of life after death
With him, back in his presence
He knew that in their new sinful state
That evil would tighten it’s grasp
So
God in his mercy gave them an out
While in the garden before the fall
Eternal life would have been great
But now in the darkness
In the wilderness
It would be torment
Satan used
Doubt
Discouragement
Diversion
And Defeat
to cause Adam and Eve
To fall from grace
And
He uses the same tactics on us
Make no mistake
Temptation is not sin
But all
All surrender to temptation is
And all sin
All sin
No matter how small you think it might be has consequences
It can cause us to miss our chance at salvation
Or cause us to lose the joy of our salvation
Sin can cause us like Adam and Eve to have shame
And
To hide from God
Breaking the fellowship that God so desires
There is one more tactic that Satan uses
He will use Delay
Often times Delay is cause by
The doubt
The discouragement
More often by the diversion of the shiny bobbles and things of this world
Then often times we feel defeated
Feel that we have made too many mistakes
Gone down too many wrong roads
So we delay
We don’t move when the Holy Spirit prompts us to Accept Christ
We don’t move when we feel God moving in our lives calling us to surrender
To Submission
To Salvation
To service
So we Delay
And
We miss our chance
But
There is Good news
Remember I talked about the blood
The sacrifice?
God created you
Because he loves you
Because you are precious to him’
Because he wants to fellowship with you
To pour out his love on you
And
So
He shed blood so you could be redeemed
So you could be forgiven
So you could be restored
That Blood sacrifice came from his one and only Son
Jesus Christ
Jesus gave his life
Gave his blood for you and for me
Don’t let Satan’s evil plan keep you from
The place that God has planned for you
His plan
God’s master plan is that one day
His children will walk with him in glory
I am excited
I can hardly wait
What about you
Close from the heart
Pray
