Truth And Consequences

Truth and Consequences

Genesis 3:8-19

Intro: There is a fairly new word in our English language. The word is “affluenza”. It is so new that my spell check says that it doesn’t exist. I had never heard of the word until a couple of months ago. You may have heard of this story.

. There is a teenager named Ethan Couch. He is sixteen years old. Ethan grew up in a life of luxury. Pampered and catered to his entire life. He and seven of his friends decided to get drunk one night. They were out in the family pickup truck. Ethan was driving and drove into a crowd of people at 70 MPH. Four people were killed and eleven more were injured. Ethan’s blood alcohol was three times the limit and they found valium in his system also. Ethan was arrested and finally went to trial last December. Just last month. During the trial, a psychologist testified that Ethan, being wealthy and pampered and sheltered his whole life should not really be held responsible for his actions. He said that Ethan suffered from affluenza, a social disease that only affects the wealthy and affluent. People with this social disorder don’t understand that they can’t do things like this. They need help, they should not be held responsible for their actions. The judge agreed and Ethan was given 10 years probation and rehab.

. While this story may make your blood boil with what’s going on in our society, it is not really unique. We are a society that does not want to hold people accountable for their actions. From our government on down.

. Not only are people not held accountable, no one wants to take responsibility for their actions.

. As many of you know, at one time I owned a service business. I had an employee. His name was John Smith. I know, that should have given me a hint. Actually John was a pretty good employee other that this issue I am sharing with you. Any time anything went wrong, John would call me and the first words out of his mouth were, “ Anthony, this was not my fault”. John was never responsible for anything that went wrong. It was always somebody else’s fault.

. While we may think that this is a new phenomenon in our society, it is not.

. We see the first account of this in our scripture this morning.

. We are back in the third chapter of Genesis this morning.

. Last time we looked at the conversation that the woman and the serpent or the devil had.

. This morning we are going to look at the conversation that God has with Adam, Eve and the serpent.

. In this scene, we will see that God gives them opportunity to Fess up and the consequences of their disobedience and sin.

. Lets read our scripture. Genesis 3: 8-19

. 8When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the LORD God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the LORD God among the trees.

9Then the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”

10He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.”

11“Who told you that you were naked?” the LORD God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”

12The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”

13Then the LORD God asked the woman, “What have you done?”

“The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”

14Then the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all animals, domestic and wild. You will crawl on your belly, groveling in the dust as long as you live.

15And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”

16Then he said to the woman, “I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.

17And to the man he said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.

18It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains.

19By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.”