God Always Has A Plan
Jeffery Anselmi / General
Worst Year Ever / Hope / Genesis 3:14–21
The year 2020 has not treated us well. It’s been a terrible year; what do we have to be thankful for? This four-week series explores what we as Christians can be grateful for, even in hard circumstances, pointing to the hope we have in Christ while acknowledging the real and hard things we have experienced.
INTRODUCTION
• GOODBYE 2020!
• Can I get an AMEN!
• The year 2020 has not treated us well.
• It’s been a terrible year; what do we have to be thankful for?
• This four-week series explores what we as Christians can be grateful for, even in hard circumstances, pointing to the hope we have in Christ while acknowledging the real and hard things we have experienced.
• We could spend a great deal of time articulating why 2020 may have been the worst year of many of our lives.
• It would not take much thinking to come up with a list of why 2020 was such a terrible year, and let’s face it, for MANY people it was.
• 2020 was a year of tremendous loss for many people, the loss of loved ones, the loss of jobs, the loss of dreams, as well as the lack of ability to be with our families.
• The list can on and on for a long time.
• The losses may suffered during 2020 (YOU KNOW, LET’S JUST CALL IT THE PREVIOUS YEAR, KIND OF LIKE HOTELS THAT SKIP THE NUMBER 13 WHEN THEY HAVE 13 OR MORE FLOORS) are real and painful, there is no denying that.
• For those who have endured the loss of so much, would it be fair to ask where God was during this mess?
• Does God have a plan for when things are going bad?
• The answer that we will see today is yes!
• However, the part we will not like to hear is that we will not always know, understand, or even agree with His plan.
• When you put “the previous year” into history, it was most definitely not the worst in history.
• When I ponder some of the worst years in history, there are many candidates, from the years war started, to the years when plagues wiped out huge portions of the world populations, the to advent of Communism, the list goes on.
• Usually we will define a year as the worst year in our lives depending on the impact the said year had on us personally.
• The effects could be directly or indirectly felt.
• When we are in the midst of what appears to be a bad year, we have to know that there are some good things we can place our focus on.
• I know for me, this year has been a drag; however, the “previous year” was a time when I started to place some focus on my health.
• There are many other things I can be thankful for that I will not take time to mention, other than the fact that the “previous year” has punctuated how awesome my Church Family at FCC truly is to me and my family.
• Ok, today we are going to be in Genesis 3:14-21.
• Even though we do not have an official year on the calendar for when the events of Genesis three took place, we can see that indeed, whatever the year these events happened, that year has to be the worst one in HUMAN HISTORY!
• 1
• Life was good, life was easy, Adam and Eve walked in the garden with God himself. I think they even have iPads and iPhones!
• Life is GREAT until we get to Genesis 3!
Coffman Commentary: Genesis Chapter 3Genesis 3
This chapter details the temptation and fall of humanity and their consequent expulsion from Eden. The tempter is introduced (Gen. 3:1); the temptation is presented (Gen. 3:2-5); the fall of Eve, then Adam, (Gen. 3:6); the consequent shame, loneliness and fear (Gen. 3:7,8); their confrontation with God and their futile excuses (Gen. 3:9-13); the curse of the serpent and the word of hope for mankind (Gen. 3:14-15); the outline of the penalties upon Eve and Adam (Gen. 3:16-20); and their expulsion from Eden (Gen. 3:21-24) are other developments that bring the chapter to its conclusion.
• God gave Adam and Eve ONE THING NOT TO DO, and they, starting with Eve, succumbed to the temptation of that wretched tree.
• I would say the year the events in Genesis three took place takes the crown for the worst year in human history.
• The events that took place in Genesis three, has effected ALL of CREATION, including ALL human beings.
• When we dig into the narrative, we will see that even in the middle of the storm, even in the moment of our most epic failures, God has a plan!
• Big Idea of the Message today is a follows: Even in dire circumstances and the upending of God’s good plan for the world, He has a plan, and He provides grace that makes a way for salvation. We can be thankful for His plan and His grace (of which Jerry will expand on at the end of this month.
• Let’s begin our journey this morning in Genesis 3:14-15
• This takes place AFTER God catches on to the fact that Adam and Eve broke the ONE commandment that God clearly articulated to Adam NOT TO BREAK!
Genesis 3:14–15 CSB
14 So the LORD God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed more than any livestock and more than any wild animal. You will move on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life.
15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.
SERMON
I. God has a plan for the deceivers.
• In life there are those who will do everything they can to advantage of people, and some are very successful at being able to do so.
• Satan (taking on the form of a serpent) is the greatest deceiver that has ever existed.
• When God created the tree from which Adam and Eve were told to stay away from, I bet Eve walked by that tree every day wondering how it would taste, I mean is looked so good to the eye.
• Temptation always does look good to the eye. I am sure Satan was watching this scene unfold and when the time seemed to be right when Eve appeared to him to be at her most vulnerable, Satan shows up to reap the harvest of Eve’s desires.
• I think infomercials run late at night because late at night that knife that you can cut your house in half with looks so appealing because our defenses are down!
• When Satan tempted Eve, and Eve bit the fruit, mankind and God suffered a great deal.
• When God created the tree that Adam and Eve were called to stay away from, God did so in order that Adam and Eve have freedom of choice, free will if will, which is a necessary part of love.
• God wanted Adam and Eve to obey Him because they loved Him, yet here we are, Eve is engaged in a conversation with Satan in the form of a serpent.
• Does God have a plan for those who are deceivers? Will they get off with no consequences when it is all said and done?
• Based on the fact that the ultimate deceiver was dealt with by God, the answer to that question is yes.
• People in this world whose chosen job is to deceive and cheat people, will stand before God one day.
• Satan was standing before God and had a plan for him.
• When God created mankind, He knew mankind would eventually fall, yet God still created us, and when His perfect creation chose the path of disobedience instead of love, God was not caught by surprise.
• The serpent, as an animal, was cursed “above all livestock, and above every wild animal,” not because of direct culpability on its part, but rather as a perpetual reminder to man of the instrument of his fall and of the final destruction of Satan himself.
• Whatever may have been its beauty and posture before, it would henceforth glide on its belly and be an object of dread and loathing by all.
• For Satan himself, God laid out the consequence he will face in verse 15!
• Ultimately, Satan is a defeated foe!
• Deceivers, beware!
Genesis 3:16 CSB
16 He said to the woman: I will intensify your labor pains; you will bear children with painful effort. Your desire will be for your husband, yet he will rule over you.
II. God has a plan when we are deceived.
• Eve, Eve, what were you thinking!
• Sometimes we can go through life oblivious to what is happening around us. Eve KNEW better to do what Satan enticed her to do.
• There are times in life when we can be deceived by other people.
• What happens when I allow myself to be deceived?
• Does god have a plan when I allow myself to be deceived?
• Let’s look at Eve.
• Eve paid a high price for her sin, although it seems to me that the whole desire for her husband bit seems like a reward for her! :)
• Ok, childbearing pain was going to be intensified for women (of course at this time, she is the only one) and because of her deception, the husband will be the head of the marriage.
› It is not as though there was to be no pain associated with birth prior to the Fall; instead that pain will be greatly increased. The process designed by the creator to bring forth new life will also serve as a stark reminder of the consequences of attempting to live life on one’s own terms and not on God’s. (College Press Commentary- Genesis Volume 1)
• When God was dealing with the deceiver, the deceiver was cursed by God; however, Eve was not cursed, she was given consequences for what she did.
• God held her accountable, but he did not curse her for eternity.
• We need to be alert in life, we cannot allow ourselves to fall for the deceptions of the enemy!
1 Peter 5:8 CSB
8 Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.
• Let’s look at verses 17-19
Genesis 3:17–19 CSB
17 And he said to the man, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’: The ground is cursed because of you. You will eat from it by means of painful labor 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 You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground since you were taken from it. For you are dust, and you will return to dust.”
III. God as a plan when we do dumb things.
• Adam, Adam, Adam!
• Adam is in deep trouble because he was just being dumb.
• Adam KNEW better, God told him DIRECTLY not to mess with that tree, yet here comes Adam.
• Even worse, look at verse 6 of Genesis 3!
Genesis 3:6 CSB
6 The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
• Adam was with her the entire time, and he did nothing!
• God punished Adam for being dumb and for not caring enough to stop Eve! He allowed his wife to sin without a peep, as a matter of fact, he partook of the fruit with her!
• Adam’s life was no longer going to be easy.
• Adam ushered in physical death for the human race as a result of his disobedience.
• We all die physically because of Adam, we die spiritually because of our own sin.
• When God told Adam in Genesis 2:17 to stay away from the tree, the Hebrew reads DYING YOU SHALL DIE.
• Adam and Eve did not drop dead the moment they ate, the process of death started.
• Here is where I want to go in verse 15 and 20-21
Genesis 3:15 CSB
15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.
Genesis 3:20–21 CSB
20 The man named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living.
21 The LORD God made clothing from skins for the man and his wife, and he clothed them.
IV. God has a plan that offers deliverance.
• This situation is a mess which there seems to be no way out. Adam and Eve brought a curse to creation, they began the process of their own death as well as ushering in death to all.
• Childbirth was going to be more painful, the ground was going to be more difficult to harvest, the woman role in the home was changed, AND ON TOP OF IT ALL, THEY WERE GOING TO GET BOOTED FROM THE GARDEN!
• How is that for a day's work!
• Is all lost? No, there is hope because of the grace of God, God has a plan.
• Genesis 3:15!
Genesis 3:15 CSB
15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.
› The great promise in Genesis 3:15 has long been known as the Protevangelium (the “first gospel”), promising the ultimate coming and victory of the Redeemer.
› It obviously entails far more than a trivial reference to the physical enmity between men and snakes, though this may be included as a sort of secondary pictorial parallel.
› The prophecy clearly looks forward to the time when Satan will be completely crushed beneath the feet of the woman’s triumphant Seed. Jesus! (The Genesis Record)
• God also made clothing for Adam and Eve by shedding blood of an animal to cover Adam and Eve.
• This is the first item we see that sins require the shedding of blood as an atonement.
CONCLUSION
• When all seems lost, God still has a plan.
• I do not think any of us has had a day as bad as Adam and Eve on that fateful day. God’s grace opened the door for hope, when you are at your lowest, God will offer you a way to salvation!
› Add to 2020 the fact that more Hall of Fame baseball players died that year than any other year in history (Lou Brock, Whitey Ford, Bob Gibson, Al Kaline, Joe Morgan, Tom Seaver, and Phil Niekro).
› Niekro died the day after Christmas at the age of 81 after a long battle with cancer.
› Tributes to the famed knuckleball pitcher recalled intriguing facts about his 24-season career that didn’t end until his retirement at 48. By his own admission, Niekro acknowledged, “I was a one-pitch pitcher.”
› But that one pitch allowed him to win a record 121 games after his 40th birthday.
› Niekro never experienced arm problems in his lengthy career and was a five-time All-Star.
› But what might catch our attention most is that in 1979, at the age of 40, Niekro became the last MLB pitcher to win AND lose 20 games in a single season.
› He won 21 games and lost 20.
› After losing 20 games, the most in the league, Niekro finished sixth on the 1979 ballot for the National League Cy Young Award – and he’d go on to pitch 8 more seasons before being selected to the Hall of Fame in 1997.
• The losses of this year seem astronomical, but they don’t have to define us, nor do they negate the wins. Beaumont Enterprise, 12/28/20, p.B1
• We do not have to be defined by our failures!
• OUR APPLICATION FOR TODAY IS THIS; When things go bad and look bad, ask God for the eyes to see His grace in the midst of hardship and sin.
