Sermon Central
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You Can’t Unscramble An Egg (Lent 1 February 26. 2023)
Contributed by John Williams Iii on Apr 25, 2023 (message contributor)
Summary: Why did Adam and Eve fall? Was it because they both took a bite of the forbidden fruit? Of course they did. All it took was a bite for them to lose their mostly unrestricted place in the Garden of Eden. The fruit of tree of the knowledge of good and evil was the restricted part of the garden.
2) Wilderness: Satan (aka the serpent) also wanted to steal our salvation by conning Jesus. He succeeded in the Garden of Eden and failed to succeed in conning Jesus by tempting Him in the wilderness when he was weak after fasting forty days and nights. Paul said “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Corinthians_15:22 NIV) .
Satan wanted to conquer Jesus in the wilderness by tempting Him to choose raw power rather than God’s will. Satan would keep looking for an opportune time (Luke 4:13). He would try to tempt Jesus to renege before the cross.
3) Power: Henri Nouwen once said, “What makes the temptation of power so seemingly irresistible? Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life. Jesus asks, Do you love me? We ask, Can we sit at your right hand and your left hand in your Kingdom? (Mt. 20:21). ... We have been tempted to replace love with power”
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Every time we choose power over loving the way God wants us to love, we give the devil a toehold.
CHOICES
Don’t we all have to make choices? Of course we do. Even the decision not to choose is still a decision.
Phillip Yancey once wrote "We think we are wise enough to make our own decisions about morality. To live rightly without the megaphone of pain blaring into our ears. We are wrong. The Garden of Eden story proves that. Man, in a world without suffering, chose against God" (P. Yancey. Where Is God When It Hurts?. New York: Harper Paperbacks, 1977, p. 56) . Did you get that? This decision in the Garden of Eden was made in a sinless world that did not know sin!
Why would God give Adam and Eve free will even if God knew that they would not choose Him?
Obviously, God gave Adam and Eve a choice, because He wanted them to choose Him.
1) Romance versus slavery: As one pastor wisely put it “God wanted romance not slavery”. The Free Will of Manhttps://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/the-freewill-of-man-jerry-depoy-sermon-on-evangelism-how-to-77746 Adam and Eve could not have imagined what this choice would cost them or their descendants throughout history! Choosing other than God made them slaves to sin. God wants us to choose Him because we want to not because he made us choose.
2) Sin equals slavery: Jesus said “I speak eternal truth,” Jesus said. “When you sin you are not free. You’ve become a slave in bondage to your sin. (35) And slaves have no permanent standing in a family, like a son does, for a son is a part of the family forever” (John 8:34 - 35 TPT).
3) Forbidden tree: God told them that they could eat from any in the Garden of Eden except one and they were tempted to choose the forbidden tree. Satan is always involved in what John Wesley called "mixing truth and falsehood together … " (John Wesley. Sermon 57. "On The Fall Of Man”).. Satan mixed the truth with a lie to deceive Adam and Eve.
