"the Saddest Moment In History"

“The Saddest Moment in History”

Genesis 3:1-13

How many of you think this world is messed up?

How many of you think there is something terribly wrong with the way things are?

One of the most amazing things to me is, that, as far as I know this world is all I have ever known.

I mean, I was born into this world.

I don’t remember not existing.

I don’t remember anything before the time I was born, but I can say this world is messed up!

Isn’t that weird?

My son Owen is 3.

Recently we went somewhere or did something, as a family, that my wife, and Mary Ellen had done before Owen was born.

So, I told Owen that we had been to this certain place before--but before he was born.

And he just wasn’t able to comprehend what I was saying.

So, again, I said: “Owen, we, Mary Ellen, your Mommy and I have been here, but YOU have not been here.

You didn’t exist yet.”

To that, Owen replied, “I don’t remember being here because I was just a baby.”

He couldn’t imagine not existing.

In any event, I think it’s very interesting that we—You and I—can say that this life is messed up or that it’s strange or whatever when we don’t know anything different!

I mean, it’s messed up, compared to what?

It’s strange, compared to what?

There is something in us that realizes that our present condition is not the way things are supposed to be.

There is evil in the world.

We hurt one another with our words, our actions.

We kill.

Our relationships are strained.

And there is something else missing—something MUCH bigger.

Down through the ages, people have called it a “God-shaped Void.”

It’s hard to put our finger on it, but we all know it is there.

The relationship we were ULTIMATELY created to enjoy is blurred, it’s broken.

The very reason we were created has been damaged.

And so, we float, like a ship with no sails, drifting at sea.

We have no foundation—nothing of substance grounding us.

Can you relate?

Have you ever felt lost?...

…broken?

Have you ever felt as if there is something missing in your life?

Have you ever felt alone?

Do you feel that way now?

God created us to be in relationship: in relationship with God and in relationship with one another.

And it’s a relationship of trust.

A relationship of love.

It’s a relationship where there is no reason to feel afraid of the other.

It’s a relationship of complete unconditional love.

And that unconditional love is not something we have to work at.

It is just there.

We were made for God.

We were made for one another.

But we were also given free-will.

God didn’t create a bunch of robots.

What would be the point?

Did you all ever have a furby?

Mary Ellen did.

Now they are in the attic.

One day I was hunting for something in the attic and the furby woke-up and started talking to me.

It nearly scared me to death.

In any event, one of the ideas behind a furby or any kind of talking toy is that it’s supposed to be, well, kind of like a friend.

But is it really?

I mean, it’s not alive.

It doesn’t think for itself.

So, it really doesn’t make a suitable companion.

And it eventually ends up sitting on a shelf in our room and then moves up to the attic or a garage sale or in the garbage.

God didn’t have any interest in creating a bunch of furby’s.

God created humankind, YOU and ME for an eternal relationship.

A love relationship that goes on forever.

In Genesis 1:26-27 God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness…

…So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.”

And God put us in a beautiful garden.

And everything was good.

We could completely and totally enjoy creation.

We could do anything we wanted.

There was just one thing—one thing—we were not allowed to do, and that was to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Sadly, we did that one thing.

And when we did, evil was given a foothold.

We opened the door to the devil.

“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked…”