The 90’s
I. Introduction
Time is flying. We have already visited 3 decades. Decades when viewed in reverse seem to be an immense amount of time. But it goes so quickly. We have looked at 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. Now we find ourselves in the 90’s! Each week I have been playing snippets of the music of the decade. Play 90’s soundtrack.
On TV you would have watched Saved By The Bell, Frazier, Friends, Seinfeld. You would have seen Carson hand off to Leno. Survivor and South Park. MacGyver. Cheers. Will and Grace. You would have shoppde for Phones, computers, Game Boy, Beannie Babies, POGS, Nintendo 64 and Pokemon Cards. In the theater ... A Few Good Men, Titanic grosses 1 Billion. Pulp Fiction, Terminator, The Matrix and Jurassic Park. Major League Baseball goes on strike. Michael Jordan rules the hardwood and the Bulls win 6 Championships. The rap wars begin. Tupac and Notorious BIG are gunned down due to the East Coast vs. West Coast feud. Dominating the airwaves would be Vanilla Ice, Garth Brooks, Janet Jackson. Nirvana and Pearl Jam would usher in the Grunge Scene and sound. Those bands would give way to Boy Bands and Mousekateers who had suddenly grown up. Major world events took place that many of you will remember watching live on TV . . . The World Trade Center Bombing. The Oklahoma City Bombing. The Gulf War. LA Riots and Rodney King. David Koresch and Waco. OJ was acquitted because . . . "if it doesn’t fit you must acquit." Scandal returns to the White House with Bill Clinton’s issues. Nelson Mandela is released from prison in South Africa. Rwanda sees 500,000 dies in Civil War. In 1990, a new house cost $123,000.00 and by 1999 the same house was $131,700.00. In 1990 the average income per year was $28,970.00 and by 1999 it was $40,810.00.
The success and mad dash for more in the 80’s gives way to the technology explosion in the 1990’s. Cloning and stem cell research take the headlines.The internet becomes available for general use. Napster is launched so that music is shared via internet. Ebay is launched.
In 1994, 3 million people had internet access; by 1998, 100 million were online; by the end of 1999 the number was nearly a billion. We moved from In God We Trust to In Google We Trust. Google launched in a garage in 1998 and now has 60,000 employees in 50 countries. The Information Age put Information at your finger tips.
There has been a mantra or governing message for each decade from the 60s “if it feels good do it” which led to the 70s “the devil made me do it” Thee 80’s was the Decade of Excess. Bigger is better. More! The 90’s taught us that technology would solve all of our problems. We are smart enough and wise enough to figure all out ourselves. “Knowledge is power!” The 90’s is the Decade of Information.
I have been referring to the Garden of Eden account each week in passing because it shows the decades at work. However, today I want us to go back to that account a little more in depth because you don’t just see the 60s, 70s and 80s at work. You can see the result which is the 90s.
Genesis 2:8-9, 15-17, 25; 3:6-10
Then God planted a garden in Eden, in the east. He put the Man he had just made in it. God made all kinds of trees grow from the ground, trees beautiful to look at and good to eat. The Tree-of-Life was in the middle of the garden, also the Tree-of-Knowledge-of-Good-and-Evil.
God took the Man and set him down in the Garden of Eden to work the ground and keep it in order. God commanded the Man, “You can eat from any tree in the garden, except from the Tree-of-Knowledge-of-Good-and-Evil. Don’t eat from it. The moment you eat from that tree, you’re dead.” The two of them, the Man and his Wife, were naked, but they felt no shame.
6 When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she’d know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate. Immediately the two of them did “see what’s really going on”—saw themselves naked! They sewed fig leaves together as makeshift clothes for themselves. When they heard the sound of God strolling in the garden in the evening breeze, the Man and his Wife hid in the trees of the garden, hid from God. God called to the Man: “Where are you?” He said, “I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. And I hid.”
Again we see the decades played out in the Garden of Eden - 60s feels good, 70s blame, 80s more. Then we find the 90s. The account shows us that Adam and Even have a daily routine. They meet God and walk and talk. They are naked but they have no shame. However, in the pursuit of knowledge they eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and then the next thing we discover is they are hiding from God and they “enlightened” to their own nakedness.
They show us the danger of the 90’s.
Information is essential but not at the expense of intimacy.
In other words, they know more but they are less known.
And isn’t that our dilemma? We are more connected than ever - instant messaging, snap chat, we have transferred all the info from our waste to our wrist, news updates, sports updates, check-ins and even though (SLIDE 18) we are more connected I think we are less covenanted!
Adam and Eve’s increased knowledge breaks their intimacy with God.
Jesus walks into our experience and in one obscure statement about Him He reveals that He recognizes that increasing gap and wants to resolve it.
Mark 3:14 - And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach.
Notice the progression. Does He give them information? Sure. They had to have knowledge to be sent out to preach. However, we are consumed with knowledge, information, come on preacher be profound, come on author wow me, take me deep, you are too shallow and we end up knowledgeable but unknown. He called His disciples to first be with Him. He didn’t want them to be stupid. He wanted them to be wise. But He understood . . .
Knowledge that changes us is birthed in intimacy.
Jesus knew from what had happened in the Garden that knowledge absent of intimacy leads to shame, emptiness, fear, and even pride. Knowledge without intimacy is the difference between fans from followers. Many fans have a great knowledge of their team like who is a good runner or receiver or even who they think should be the quarterback. No fan has an actual intimate relationship with their favorite team. They’re not at practice, they’re not in the huddle. They’re not in team meetings. They have no intimate knowledge. The real problem is you can have knowledge without intimacy.
In fact, knowledge can be a false indicator of intimacy.
Isn’t that the atmosphere Jesus shows up to? Religious leaders who were knowledgeable to a fault. They had huge amounts of info about God. They could and can to this day quote the Word, but they lacked intimacy so that He came to His own and His own knew Him not. White washed tombs. The appearance of life on the outside because of knowledge but dead on the inside due to lack of relationship.
How many of us know more than we used to but are less known? How many of us know tons of information about Jesus but haven’t been intimate with Him to the point that we are transformed by Him.
On ingenious teenager, tired of reading bedtime stories to his little sister, decided to record several of her favorite stories on tape. He told her, "now you can hear your stories anytime you want. Isn’t that great?" She looked at the machine for a moment and then replied, "No. It hasn’t got a lap."
The 90s said more info. Jesus says more intimacy. When is the last time you were more concerned about spending time with Him rather than learning more about Him? Have you crawled up in His lap?
“If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.”- 1 Corinthians 8:2-3
Known - Hebrew Word in Genesis - Adam knows his wife. Yada. Fully known. Intimacy. Same word but in Greek here.
