Genesis | Week 2 | Full Service

Was thinking about it this week. It'll set up where I'm going. If you've been around for a while, I've told this story before. But my daughter has always loved playing hide and go seek. It's one of her favorite games. It's what she always loved doing when she was little. And my parents always played a version of hide and go seek where you would turn off all the lights in the house and you would have a flashlight. And when it was your turn to go find people, you would run around with your flashlight on and try to find all the other people hiding in darkness. Well, my daughter was famously

horrendous at this game. Like she just was not very good. And it was because she was too afraid when it was her turn to hide to turn her flashlight off. So she would be hiding in a dark house with her flashlight on. Like my neighbors knew where she was. You know what I mean? Like it was the most obvious thing to see. And she was so bad at the game that we would try to like build anticipation and some excitement for her. And so we would go around the house and we're like, oh, where's McKenna? And then she would respond to you and go, I'm right here.

Like not only could we see her, she was audibly telling us where she was, but there is a cute photo that my wife took at one point of her hiding with her flashlight on. That's what we would come to see. And it was hilarious,

right? Other than the fact that she was bad at this game, it was super cute and it was fun. And the reason that I start there is because that game played hide and go seek, the only person that was convinced that she was hidden was her.

Nobody else thought she was hidden. Everybody else knew exactly where she was and we could see her. But she was convinced that she was hiding really well. I think my daughter playing hide and go seek in the darkness, thinking that she's hidden really well is a perfect picture of where you and I often sit spiritually.

We hide and we think we do a really good job at it. We think people don't notice. We think people don't see what's going on. And more importantly, we think God doesn't know. And here's what we're gonna see today in Genesis chapter three is that God calls out to Adam and Eve after they make their first mistake and he asks them a question that he doesn't need the answer to. He already knows it. But he asks them where

are you? Not because he needed to know, but he wanted them to admit where they are. Here's my hope and my prayer this morning is that you and I would see why God hates sin so much.

The big idea we're gonna spend the next few moments looking at is a simple one. Here's what we're gonna see in Genesis chapter three friends, sin makes you and I hide. We don't know what to do with it. We were never built to carry shame.

And our knee jerk reaction is to just run from it. But here's the good news is that God is looking for God is walking around asking

where are you. And he's not here to try to find something out about you so that he can get you in trouble. He's here to set you free. My hope and my prayer this morning is I think there's a lot of people that are sitting here today. You've been running for a while. You've been hiding for a while. I'm gonna put my cards on the table and tell you I believe that today is the day that God is gonna set you free.

That today is the day where you get to stop hiding.

Genesis chapter three, if you missed last week, let me catch you up real quickly into where we are. The story of the book of Genesis is again, it's a really important one. Word Genesis literally means beginning. It is our beginning story. It's not the beginning of creation, but it's the beginning of our creation.

And in Genesis chapter one, we see that God created the world. And we often read Genesis one trying to get into the minutiae of how God created the world, but that's not the point of Genesis one. The point was to counter the argument that God is just some distant far away God that doesn't care. And Genesis one proves that no, no, no, we're not randomly here. There's a creator, there's a designer behind all of this and he built us with purpose and he built us with intention. And in Genesis one, he creates the world and in Genesis two, he creates you and I. He creates Adam and Eve.

And Genesis two ends and it looks like the 60s on steroids. It's just two naked people running around with a bunch of animals having life. It's paradise. It's amazing. They're walking with God. They're enjoying God. It's beautiful scene. But inside of this garden, this paradise that was created for us,

God put two trees for Adam and Eve. One of those trees was called the tree of life upon which they would eat and they would live eternal because you and I were always meant to be eternal beings. We were always meant to live with God forever. But he also put another tree in the Garden Of Eden.

And it's the tree that leads to the knowledge of both good and evil. And God gave Adam and Eve one instruction in Genesis two. He says, you can eat from anything in this garden except for that one tree.

And here's the thing that's hard for us to understand. Some of us ask, well, why would God even put the tree there in the beginning? Why didn't God just eliminate the need for choice? You have to understand that love without choice is not love. Forced love in our culture, in our society, it's actually a crime.

God allows you and I to choose. God wants us to choose him. Without choice, there is no love. And so God always gives us the option to choose something other than him. And you will see, here is why I kind of set this up and I encourage you to lean in this morning. The Bible is not a recollection in account of what happened.

The bible is a predictor of what always happens. Genesis is not their story, it's our story. All of us in this room, gentlemen, we are Adam. Women in this room, all of you are Eve and if we can see it, there is power in the story of Genesis chapter three. Here's how the story begins in verse one.

It says that a serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God

had made. Again, know I'm one verse in, but let me kind of stop and set up what we're seeing here real quick. Genesis two, God gives Adam and Eve a job. They had an assignment, they had something to do. Part of what they were to do was to have authority over nature, to go around and name all the animals. How they ever saw an animal and say, you know what should call that thing? A platypus. Like who calls anything a platypus? But they did. And we now have platypuses,

right? But they were given authority over all creatures on the earth. Now again, what we have to remember for Genesis three to make sense is we often think that Genesis three is the beginning of any creation. It's not, it's just the beginning of our creation.

There's already created beings living in heaven, the Bible tells us. There are angels living with God. There's three primary angels that run all of the angels. There's Michael that's the defender. There's Gabriel that's the messenger angel. And then there's this guy named Lucifer who was the worship angel.

If you've ever looked and thought our worship leaders were like, look like they were barely saved and we shouldn't trust them, it's true. We should not trust them, right? Because Lucifer was a worship pastor in heaven. I'm just kidding.

Lucifer was in charge of all of the worship in heaven. And at some point, the Bible tells us that he began to believe that God was keeping something from him.

That maybe just maybe he could do this thing on his own. And so Lucifer in heaven tries to throw a coup. He gets a third of all of the angels to go with him. And he tries to fight God but he forgets that God and us aren't really a fair fight and God just throws him out of heaven.

And what we see are a third of all of the angels become fallen angels and God creates a place for them to go for eternity called hell. We have to remember friends, hell was not created for you and I.

Hell was created for fallen angels to spend eternity in, not us. God never meant for you and I to spend eternity in hell. We will end up there on our own decision. God never built it for us. And in Genesis chapter three, this fallen angel named Lucifer shows up to God's creation

and he comes slithering on his belly in the form of a snake. This is really interesting to me because how Satan shows up in Genesis three is I would argue the same way he's gonna show up to tempt you and I today.

Notice what he doesn't do. He doesn't come as a fiery dragon. He doesn't come as a big, scary, hairy, audacious sin. He comes as, I know for some of you it's not a seemingly insignificant

thing. It's a snake and you're like the snake is the devil, right? Like my sister hates snakes, but I think snakes are kinda cool, right? Like he comes as a snake to Adam and Eve. He comes in the form of something that they had authority over. They had dominion over. He comes subtle,

He comes to a point that they could almost play it off as it's nothing that big of a deal. And he shows up as something that is just harmless. And I'm telling you today, the first step away from God, friends, it is always a small one. It is always one that we go, it's kinda harmless.

And he begins to erode the very fabric of which God has built. Here's the other part that's crazy about Genesis three. Adam has been by himself for a while at this point. Satan doesn't come and attack Adam while he's alone. He waits until he's married. He waits until Eve is there. Satan understands that the very cornerstone

upon which God's entire plan for humanity is built, it is the marriage bed. It is the union between one man and one woman. And Satan understands if he can begin to destroy this thing, the rest of it will all unwrap. I don't think it's a coincidence that today we're living in a time where gender is under attack,

gender has become something that is even socially uncomfortable to talk about, marriage is something that is under attack. It has been the plan from day one. It was his plan then and I'm telling you today friends, it is still his plan today. Here's how the story continues.

He shows up and he says one day he asked the woman, did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden? Notice what he does. The very first question he asks is the same question that I believe is the question that he asks all of us before he gets us to make a poor decision.

He comes with a really subtle question. He says, did God really say you can't do that? Did God really say you can't eat from any of the trees in the garden? He knows this is wrong. He knows this isn't true, right? Because there's only one tree they're not supposed to eat from. But he starts to plant the seed of doubt

in Eve's mind that God is keeping something from you. The greatest lie that our culture has sold us is that inside of all of us is a truth that if we can just learn to self actualize, we can actually get out of this life what we really want out of it.

The truth is the reason that the gospel message is so hostile, the reason that Christianity is still the most attacked religion today is because the gospel message says that you and I are the problem. Our hearts is above all things fickle, don't trust it. It will lead you down some really dangerous paths.

But the enemy will come alongside of you and go, did God really say you can't live that way? Why would God give you those desires if you can't live them out? Did God really say that you can't have sex before you're married? That's just like so 1700s,

like the bible is really old, there's no way that that what it means in modern context.

Did God really say that the person you're getting ready to spend the rest of your life with should probably be equally yoked and also be a Christian? You know who you are. You know what you want. You should just go and create this life for you.

And if we're not careful, I'm telling you it's a really subtle question but he will ask you and I the same thing. Did God really say? Here's why, again, part of why we're trying to push to go, we as the people of God, we must know scripture

as well as Satan because he's often gonna use it against us. And if we don't know it, we won't counter his attacks well. Here's the beauty of fighting Satan today, is his tactics have never

changed. He does the same thing that he does all the way back in the book of Genesis chapter three. He attacks us the same way. It's why the New Testament says that we need to know his attacks. We need to know what he does so that we can counter him. And Satan is essentially getting you and I to try to fall for the same lie he fell for.

He believed God was keeping something from him. And so now he's coming to tempt you and I to go, did God really say? And Eve responds to him in verse two, she says, of course we may eat from the trees in the garden. The woman replied,

it's only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we're not allowed to eat. Both of those things she just said are true. She's two for two at this point. Right? She gets two things right. It's this third one that she begins to mistake. God said you must not eat it or even touch it. If you do,

you will die. Here's what's funny. If you read Genesis two, it says nothing about touching

the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God's like, you can cuddle the tree, you can pet the tree, heck you could use it as a pillow if you want. All you can't do is eat it. Do not eat its fruit. Do not allow it to go into your body. And I know it seems like it's an insignificant thing that Eve just makes a subtle

mistake in misquoting scripture back to Satan. She says, yeah, God says that you can't eat it or touch it. What does she do? She adds to the word of God. She adds something on top of the word of God. And this is again the reason that we need to know scripture.

It's because there are lots of people that try to say, yes, the scripture is good. The word of God, that's awesome. As long as you interpret it through this book, in this revelation,

in this thing. And no, no, scripture says that this is the completed revelation of God. We don't need to add anything to it, actually anybody that tries to add anything to it, you're under a curse. And Eve adds a really simple thing. She says you can't touch it either.

And I have to imagine in this moment Satan goes, I know how I can get her.

If I can get her to cross the line and just touch this thing, I'll have her. Because she didn't understand what the word of God said. She was willing and able to fall for his ploys. Friends, the word of God matters. I don't know how else to say it. We have to be able to understand

and do what scripture says to give an account for the hope that we have. We have to be able to thwart the enemy's attacks by knowing the word of God. She adds a really subtle thing that it is about to become her downfall. Because look at what he does. He tells her, you won't die. The serpent replied.

And then he just comes out and puts his cards on the table. He says, God knows that the moment you do it, your eyes will be opened and as soon as you eat it, you will be like God, knowing both good and evil. Satan in the beginning is a little subtle. And then he just goes right for the jugular.

And he goes, God is keeping something from you. God knows that if you eat this, you will become like him. And that's why he doesn't want you to do it, because he's trying to keep you from something. You wanna know what God is trying to keep you from? God is trying to keep you from the consequences

that come from stepping outside of the plan that he's created for you. Is God trying to keep you from something? Yes. He's trying to keep you from experiencing the thing as the Imago Dei, as the people who are the image bearers of God that we aren't built to carry. He's trying to stop you from experiencing

shame and guilt and condemnation and judgment, which is what this world is full of. Yes, He's trying to stop you from experiencing that.

Is God just up in heaven going, you know what? You know Jesus, come here. Let's look at the list of all the fun things there are to do in earth. We're And gonna make sure that they can't do this one and this one and this one. And you know what all the Christians are gonna do? They're gonna eat brussels sprouts and broccoli for the rest of their life because they're followers of Jesus.

That is not the gospel message. Culture has become convinced. The enemy has convinced the world and I think the church of the worst lie ever that somehow God doesn't want you and I to experience the most joyful lives we could ever dream possible. Do you know who created sex? God and men it is a good thing.

It is a great blessing that God created but you take that thing that's supposed to be a gift, that's supposed to be a blessing, that is supposed to fill you with joy and connection and intimacy and you take it outside of the confines upon which God has created it and the same thing that's supposed to be a blessing

will now come with all kinds of things that you don't know what to do with. The reason God's trying to tell you, the reason that the scriptures tell us not to have sex before we're married is because God wants somebody to commit to you before you connect your heart to them in a way that you can never disconnect.

He wants your heart to be protected so that when they leave, you're not sitting there feeling like you are worthless. Is God trying to keep something from you? Yes. Judgment, condemnation, guilt, shame, all that this world has to offer us. But here's the life the enemy will tell you, all these things that you want to do,

God is just trying to keep you from experiencing fun. Because here's the truth, sin is fun for a while.

If you haven't had fun sinning, I'm telling you, you're just not doing it right. Like sin can be really fun. The challenge is not that it's not fun. The problem is what happens when the fun is done. The problem is where we're left after we experience the momentary joy.

Friends, here's the trap. Let me just tell you, here's the hook that's inside the bait that the enemy won't tell you about. What he's gonna try to get you and I to do every single time is to give up what we want most for what we want right now. He will convince you to give up the ultimate for the immediate.

He'll say just settle for instant gratification. Take it now, experience it now. And this is one of the most frustrating parts of following God is because we live in a microwave culture but we serve a God that's a crock pot kind of dude. He is slow cooking. He's doing things that take centuries, years,

decades to unfold and we go, no, no, no, I want it now. I want it today. I want Amazon shipping in two days. If I can get it tomorrow, yes, I will pay $2.99 to get it tomorrow. We want it now. God says just trust me, be patient, play the long game and understand that I'm working and I'm doing something. And this plan that I'm working,

it's better than the plan that you will settle for. The question when our faith is really tested is do you believe that God's plan for your life is actually better than your plan for your life? Because if you do, there will be moments where you will have to give up what you want right now for what you want most.

The transaction that the enemy is going to convince you to do is give up the ultimate. Trade in this but get this. The problem with this world friends is all the things we try to use to fill the hole that we feel in our soul. Everything that this world offers will fill it for a few moments.

But the problem is then when we're done, the whole is bigger and wider and larger and you have to get more of this world to try to satisfy it. Maybe just maybe it's because the hole in your soul is something that this world was never meant to satisfy. The Bible says that what's been placed in your heart is eternity.

What you're longing for is to be made back into the image of God that you were supposed to have from the beginning, the original design. But what we're about to see has been broken and flawed and you and I have been born into chaos. We have been born into brokenness.

We have been born into a world that was never a part of the original design. Satan just comes out and tells her God is keeping something from you. In verse six, the saddest verse in the Bible, it says, the woman was convinced.

She was convinced that the enemy was right. She was convinced that God was keeping something from her. She was convinced that she was just gonna do this thing herself. So she saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious and she wanted the wisdom

it would give her. This is the part that blows my mind about this story. If Eve is telling the truth here, this is what's so sad. Eve wanted wisdom. The Bible says that wisdom is a great thing, that we should seek wisdom.

We should try to pursue it and gain wisdom and maybe one day you'll have as much wisdom as me because I have all this gray hair which the Bible says is proof of all my wisdom, I guess. But wisdom is a great thing, it's a good thing, it's something that we should seek for, something that is okay for Eve to want.

But here's what it tells me is that God has a plan and God has a purpose and wisdom is not something you can short circuit your way to get. And if Eve would just wait on God, God would give her the desires of her heart. God would give her the things that she wants. God is a good father that loves her. He has good things for her.

But here's what happens every time friends when we try to get and we take even the good things but we do them and we get them in a way that is outside of the plan that God has created. All of a sudden those good things, those great things are not a blessing. They're a massive burden to be dealt with.

Look at what's happening in our culture with abortion. God says that a child every time a baby is conceived it is an incredible blessing. For anybody that's walked through it, I got my girlfriend pregnant when she was 19 and I was 20 years old. What is supposed to be a blessing, it's a heavy burden.

And it's a burden that our culture says you can just easily do away with. But it's just not true. Friends, we have to be really careful to even try to go after the good things that God has for us and do it outside of the order that God has created because then you'll get it

and you'll go, man, this doesn't feel like I thought it was gonna feel. Why don't I feel different? God has good things for us, but we have to trust in his timing. And Eve becomes convinced the only way that she's going to get wisdom is she has to go and take and do it herself.

So she took some of the fruit and she ate it. And then she gave some to her husband. This is the part that always blows my mind about the story too because I've always heard this story that it was like Eve's fault, like women, you ruined all of the world for us. Thanks a lot. But look where Adam was.

Adam was with her and he ate it too. Think about the picture for a second. Eve is convinced somehow, I don't know how she got the misinformation

that she wasn't able to eat the fruit or even touch the fruit or she would die. Because God did say if they eat it that they would die. Now they didn't understand what God meant about death. We think about death as only a physical death. There's a much worse death that you and I can experience.

A lot of us are living as walking dead people. We're physically alive, yes, but emotionally, spiritually, intimately, we're dead. That's the death that God was talking about. He says the moment you'll experience this, you will begin to have complete separation from each other and you'll have separation between me and you.

But Eve said if we touch this, it will die, we will die. And before she could eat the fruit, obviously she has to grab the fruit off of the tree, right? And Adam is sitting here the whole time watching this whole thing and she touches it and they both go, wow, she didn't die. That whole thing was made up anyways.

But they go, maybe God is lying to us. And then Adam watches his wife eat it and goes, wow, she didn't die. Maybe God was lying to us. And then she takes it and looks to her husband and says, hey, do you want some? And he's like, yeah, sure, I'm hungry, like food, let's do it. And he eats the apple too.

And here's the part of why I think this story is so important for us to see. See, I thought that men struggling to live up to the standard of biblical manhood was something that just plagued our generation.

But the truth is that men struggling to live up to the standard of biblical manhood is something that has been a part of the plan from almost the very beginning. I don't know what it is about leading our homes, but men, if we're honest, it's tough. It is much easier to sit on the sidelines and do nothing.

To allow our wives to take the lead.

To sit in the garage and tinker with the toys, get really excited about football and let our wives kinda deal with the spiritual stuff because we don't really like it. And it literally blows my mind that during this entire theological conversation that Eve is having with Satan, they're going back and forth, they're quoting scripture, they're talking about spiritual things. I had just always assumed that Adam was like playing football with some of the animals or something. Like he was just having himself a good time, but that wasn't what was happening.

Adam was there the whole time. He was right there at any point. He could have stopped this thing. He could have stepped up and told his wife, no, you got this wrong.

That isn't what the Bible says. We don't have to do what his guy is trying to convince us to do. God has incredible plans for us. God has built us. God has purpose for us. Let's walk away from this, but he doesn't do it. He does the same thing that the enemy is trying to convince you and I as men today to do, to abdicate our responsibilities to lead, to abdicate our responsibilities of being the head of our homes, to say just, I don't know, my wife is just better at it. It's awkward for me.

I'm not really good at it. She seems to like it more and what I believe right now you and I as a culture are reaping. We are reaping the fruit of what we have sowed for the last four generations of a fatherless world of men who have decided to sit in the garage and let other people lead their families.

And Genesis three tells me something that this next thing I'm gonna say is borderline controversial. There are two options when it comes to us leading our home.

Men, you can decide to do it. You and I can be the leaders of our home that we were always designed to do. God created Adam first. He made him to be the leader. Eve is from his side, they are equals but in that equality there is order and the man is supposed to go first and you are supposed to lead but if you won't do it,

Satan will lead your home. Those are the only two options.

And I know for some of you women that are in here that are like, man, I'm doing my best and I know you are. But even the idea of single mothers, that is the byproduct of men abdicating their responsibilities and walking away from what God told them, this is your burden. This is what you and I are supposed to do.

And I don't know what it is, but us leading in our homes, it is without a doubt the most uncomfortable place that I lead week in and week out. You know why? Because I can walk up here and I can impress you with the thirty minutes that you see me. I can impress you and make you think that I'm spiritual.

But you know who really knows me? My wife. You know who sees my mistakes? You know who sees my flaws? My wife. You know the person that if she wanted to could vilify and crucify me to the wall? My wife. She knows the worst parts of me. And the enemy knows that that makes it incredibly

difficult for me to lead in because I can't pretend there. I can pretend here, so can you. And the problem friends is if we don't begin to take the standard of biblical manhood and go, the stakes could not be higher. Gentlemen, we have to step back into the roles that we've been given as men to lead our homes,

to lead our families, to lead our communities, to lead our cultures. You know what's crazy still to this day? One of the least attended church days in the year is Father's Day. One of the highest attended days outside of Christmas and Easter it's Mother's Day. Because gentlemen,

when we have the choice, our decision is football, it's golf, it's something other than this. Because the truth is most of this is just appeasing our wife because she's the one dragging us here. And I'm telling you right now, you are exactly, your family is exactly where the enemy wants you.

Our world is getting more and more wicked because our men in our church are weak. What would happen to our homes, our community, our culture, our society if men began to step back into the leadership responsibility that we've been given. It is not easy. I'm not saying that it's easy, but I'm saying if we don't do it,

the church will no longer be what we're supposed to be, the ones that push against the gates of hell. What is happening in our church right now that is so bizarre is we're getting to a spot where it's almost hard even in the church to see where culture stops and the church begins.

Where the church ends and culture begins. There's this thing that's happening in church called an affirming church. The church was never meant to affirm you. No matter what you think or feel or believe or have your natural proclivity towards, the church is supposed to indict you in me. We are the problem.

And if we begin to just go, no, we'll just affirm each other. It is again exactly where the enemy wants us. Adam was there the entire time. And what we're gonna see in a second is that God, even though Eve is the one that eats first, He doesn't go to Eve for accountability. He goes to the man because what leadership is,

is it is all of the responsibility, it is all of the accountability. Even when we don't feel like we have the authority. But men, what we want is we want all the authority, we just don't want any of the responsibility. But men, we take ownership for the mistakes that aren't ours. It's not our fault,

but it is our responsibility. It's not our fault that we've gotten here as a culture, but it's our responsibility to go, if we don't do it, who will? If we don't step up and begin to make a change, who will?

Here's what happens after she gives it to her husband and he eats it. In verse seven, it says, at that moment, their eyes were open. And suddenly they felt the thing that God was trying to keep them from ever experiencing, shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

The first moment that Adam and Eve step into sin, I have fake fig leaves. They had real fig leaves. I know for all you arborists, you're like those aren't fig leaves, don't judge me, fig leaves are hard to find right now. Just pretend that these are fig leaves, okay?

Adam and Eve, the moment that they sin, they feel shame. What Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden is what I believe you and I will do every time we step outside of the plan of God for our life as well. We will find something to hide behind. Instead of running to God, we will find something to hide from God with.

Adam and Eve take two fig leaves and they begin to run and hide from the person they should have been running towards. I would argue that much of humanity, much of our human experience since Genesis three has been humans finding different fig leaves to hide behind.

I believe that some of you in this room, your fig leaf, the thing that you hide behind, I'm the only goober that's holding physical fig leaves, but all of us in here, we're hiding behind something.

All of us use something to cover up the places that we're ashamed of people seeing. For some of you, the way you mask all of your insecurities is you've just built a really successful business. And you think that that business is proof that you are who you're supposed to be. And the truth is, is having possessions,

they're not bad. The problem becomes when your possessions have you. When your possessions become your identity, you are falling for the trap that was laid in the Garden of Eden. They are nothing but a fig leaf. For some of you,

it's your family, it's your kids. That's the fig leaf. That's the thing you pour yourself into. That's kinda what you hide behind. You allow that to distract you. You allow that to be the thing that lets you not deal with all this other stuff over here. I think the biggest fig leaf the culture uses, that the church uses,

the greatest thing that we use to hide is we just hide in plain sight. We walk in the doors of church,

we have the conversations, people ask us how we are, we go, I'm blessed and highly favored brother, how are you? Blessed, awesome brother. I'll see you next weekend. Great, praise God. And then we walk out of these doors and we live like God doesn't exist.

And the truth is that six days a week, our lives look no different than the people who don't come to church on Sundays and we think that's the fullness of the plan of God for us. Friends, you know the enemy is totally cool with you coming to church.

He's totally good with you being in the house of God. He's even okay with you giving to a building and helping us fund the church as long as you never actually drop your fig leaves and stop hiding. Here's the thing you have to hear if nobody has ever told you, you know God wants nothing from you?

God doesn't need you and I. There's nothing so special about me or you that God needs us. But it is the beauty of who he is as a loving father that in spite of us, in our hiding, he would still use us and give us purpose on this earth. The question that I have for you sitting here today is what are you hiding behind?

What is it that you know right now? This is the thing. This is the thing that I use every time to just hide behind.

And maybe just maybe the enemy has convinced you that you should be hiding from the one that you should be running towards. I don't know if you guys have ever had it happen with your kids, but it happened literally like last week where I watched my son spill a cup off of the counter. I watched it happen. Said, hey bud, did you spill some water? Nope, wasn't me.

I'm like, I wasn't trying to figure out who did it. I watched you do it. I was just kind of asking, I don't know why I even asked. I was gonna come help you clean it up. He's like, no, it must have been my I'm like, fool, I saw you do it. Like what are you talking about?

I don't know what it is, but our knee jerk reaction is to just deny it. It's almost like post Genesis three that is wired into the very fabric and DNA of who we are. Our knee jerk reactions go, nope, hide, deny, lie. And they go, oh, yeah, it was just a cup of water. I just spilled the water.

And obviously with water, it's not that big of a deal. But with the deeper things of our soul, they matter more than we could possibly

imagine. Here's how the story finishes. It says in verse eight, when the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden so they hid from him among the trees.

And then God called out to the man and he said, where are you? This is the story of the gospel. Men, women, we make mistakes. We run, we flee and we run from God. Yet God pursues us.

The reason that Christianity is different than every other world religion is every other world religion says because of your fallen nature, you have to learn to work back to God. The gospel says that you would never be able to do it. But God is actively working towards you. He's running after you. And in Genesis three, we see the first inklings of the gospel message of men running God pursuing.

God coming to them and asking them the same question I asked my daughter hiding in the house. Where are you? Not because he didn't know. He's not asking because he somehow is blown away. Oh, you found a tree to hide behind. Like how smart are you? The God that knows all, sees all, can see the future,

can't see behind trees, right? Like it shows you how dumb sin makes us. God can't see through trees, get behind a tree. Yet God comes out and he asks him, where are you? Because there's something powerful when you and I raise our hand and just admit where we are. Not physically, but spiritually and emotionally,

where are you? I believe that God did all of this. This whole service today is for me to set up and ask you one simple question, where are you? As we start January 2023, I think the most important question that we will answer

is not all the goals and resolutions we want to set, but it's a moment where we can just be honest, raise our hand and say, this is where I am. This is the mess of my life that I've made because it is in that moment that God begins to do his best work.

It is in that moment of admitting where you are that God can step into your mess and begin to recreate a master piece. Because the rest of Genesis three,

it is God kicking Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden. It's God now, the paradise that he created. He understands, I can't let them live forever in this state. He has to get them away from the tree of life because otherwise we would stay forever in our brokenness. And so God in his first act of grace and mercy, he kicks Adam and Eve out of the Garden Of Eden and he sets into motion the greatest rescue plan that we've ever seen.

Because here's the beautiful part for you and I is we don't sit here with Genesis three being the only context of the story. We don't sit here going, okay, well what do we do? It's all a mess. It's all bad news. Yes, it is bad news. But over the next thousands and thousands of years, God would unfold the greatest rescue mission in the world to restore us back to the very original design of people who are holy and set apart and redeemed and able to live with God and to walk with Him and to enjoy His company and to not feel shame and to not have condemnation, to not feel judgment.

And that plan would crescendo some two thousand years ago with a man named Jesus. And the Bible says that he became the second Adam. He became the Adam that didn't fall. He became the Adam that quoted scripture correctly back to Satan when he was tempted in the desert. He did what the first Adam should have done.

He did what he was supposed to do to stand firm in the responsibility that he'd been given. To step into the mess and to know it's not his fault, but to still take responsibility and to do something about it.

And the Bible tells us in first Corinthians chapter 15 that just like through one person death entered the world, all of us sit here born into chaos, born into a mess, not because of our own doing,

but because of the fall in the Garden of Eden. All of us are born far from God. But look at what it says in first Corinthians 15 as we begin to wrap this up. It says, so you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man.

Just as everyone dies because we are all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. But there's an order to this resurrection. Christ was raised as the first of the harvest. Then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back.

He says, and after that, the end will come when he will return and give the kingdom over to God the father having destroyed every ruler and authority and power for Christ must reign until he humbles all of his enemies beneath his feet. And the last enemy to be destroyed will be death itself. Friends, come on, that is good news.

The gospel message is that God didn't leave you in your mess. You're sitting here today, if you feel like you have no hope, you do have hope. Not in yourself, not in your own abilities, but because of what Jesus did two thousand years ago. You don't have to stay hiding.

You don't have to stay in the forest running from God. My submission to you this morning is maybe, just maybe you could stop hiding. God's not mad at you. God knows what's happened to you. And he's been running after you not to get you in trouble. He's been running after you so that He could set you free.

Here's what we're gonna do right now. I wanna ask all of you to ponder a really simple question. Where are you? Same question that God asked Adam and Eve in the garden, where are you?

Ian's gonna lead us in a song and I want you to have a moment with God. I believe that this moment has been set up. This is a supernatural moment for you to just allow God to speak to you, to minister to you and for you to be honest and just say here's where I am. And it's in that admission,

and God can begin to do his best work. So would you pray with me father? God I ask that right now that every single person in here, God I know you've been speaking to people's hearts. I know you've been speaking and convicting and challenging and encouraging people in this room.

But God, would you give us in these next few moments, the boldness and the audacity to have just an honest moment with you. The loving father that loves us. And God in that moment, would you begin to sculpt this mess into a masterpiece?

God would we right now as we stand to worship you, would we have a moment and just be honest and say where we are. It is in the mighty name of Jesus all God's people said,

It's crazy to me that one of the words and phrases we use to describe the gospel message is the good news. And is it good news? Yes, it's the greatest news that the world has ever heard. But it's only good because the bad news is really bad.

Genesis three proves friends, you and I, we are not just mistakers who occasionally get it wrong, who occasionally choose the wrong thing. We are flawed to our very core. The bad news is way worse than you could ever even begin to imagine. But Jesus

made a way. And the good news is that two thousand years ago, Jesus put on flesh and bones. He lived the life that we will never be able to live. He was perfect indeed in thoughts, in motive. He was in all things holy and set apart and different. And he was the ultimate blameless propitiation substitution

for us. And he satisfied the wrath of God when he hung on the cross. And he conquered death. And today he is seated at the right hand of the father walking and pursuing you and I saying, where are you? Stop running.

Stop hiding. Stop fleeing. Let me come in and do what it is that I do. My hope and my prayers that right now some of you would surrender your life to Jesus and stop running.

Because otherwise this world, I'm telling you, it will only continue to birth chaos. And so I'm gonna ask everybody right now to close your eyes and bow your heads. I believe that this moment is a supernatural one that has been set up. For some of you, you are here on purpose. You are here for a reason. You are not randomly in this room.

God has you here because this is your moment. You know God has been speaking to you. He's been encouraging you and convicting you this whole time. If you're here right now and you wanna do what the Bible says, which is confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord so that you can be saved, I'm gonna give you an opportunity to do that right now. And it's gonna I'm gonna ask you to do something that's gonna seem kinda silly.

But right now, in this room, with everybody's eyes closed and the lights down, I'm gonna ask you to physically throw your hand in the air and something happens physically when we respond to what God's doing in us. Don't be ashamed. There's hands going up all over the room. There's hands going up all over the room of people saying, you know what? I'm done playing church.

I'm done just going through the motions. I want to die to myself so that I can live in Christ. Man, there's hands going up all over the room. Don't be ashamed. Throw your hand up if that's you right now.

Go ahead and put your hands down, and I want you to pray a simple prayer with me right now in the quietness of your heart. Say, Jesus, I believe that you are who you say that you are. I'm done running. I'm done hiding. I'm done striving. I'm done doing this on my own. God, right now, I lay down my life. I pick up my cross.

Today, I choose to follow you. Would you come into my heart? Would you become my Lord, my savior, my guide, my hope?

God, would you make me brand new? It is in the mighty name of Jesus that all God's people said, Amen and amen. Hey, can we just man, I'm telling you there was hands all over this place.

Friends, I believe this is how we change the world. It is through moments like this of being honest with God and then going out of these doors and being bold enough to live it out.

Thanks for joining us online this weekend. Let us know if we can help you in any way. Make sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on the We Are Rock Point app for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.