Transcription
If I we've you haven't met, my name is Paul and I have the privilege of serving as the pastor of this beautiful ministry called 1128. And what we do when we first start worship is we want to make you uncomfortable because the gospel is uncomfortable. So, turn to your neighbor, you're going to tell them, "I love that you're here." Come on, tell them. Turn to the other neighbor that you were awkward about and tell them, "I love your hair." Tell them. Compliment them about their hair. Come on.
Hey, uh we're in a brand new sermon series uh titled Sunburn, where we are walking through the Old Testament together asking one question each week the whole way through, "Where is Jesus in this story?" Because just like the two disciples walking on the road to Emmaus, they encountered Jesus and they when they believe when they start to see that Jesus is in every page and every word of the scriptures, their heart started to burn. We want that for this church. We want that for us. And that's what we're praying for this whole summer, not just a good message for you to hear and go back, not just a message to inspire you to live a better and godly life, but we're praying for a burning hearts during this summer together as a church.
And this morning we're going to start with the very first book of the Bible, Genesis, the book about all the beginnings of all things. So, if you have your Bibles, would you turn with me to Genesis chapter 3. We're going to read verses 1 through 15 and we're going to skip a little bit to verses 21 to 24. And as an act of worship, would you all rise with me as we hear from God's most perfect word for us here this morning. Genesis chapter 3 says this.
Now, the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God has made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?'" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
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 anyone 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, and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?" And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself." God said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" And the man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate." Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
The Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock, and above all beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."
Verse 21, and the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins, and clothed them. And the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eats and live forever. Therefore, the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed a cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
This is God's word, please take your seats. Can we pray once more? Father, we just ask that our hearts would come together as one, whether it's a heart that is broken, a heart that is seeking, a heart that is empty. Lord, we pray by the power of your scripture, of your word, that you would burn within us. We that you would set a fire for you for all that you are and all that you have done. So, would you speak through me now? In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Yeah, anybody here play hide and seek growing up? Uh I used to play with my little sister growing up in our small apartments. There was literally like four spots that you can hide in the whole apartment, but I found one that's really good. It was a closet by the front door. I would open it up. I would move all the shoes out of the way, all the boxes out of the way, take the vacuum cleaner out, and I'd put myself in there and hide and put the vacuum cleaner in front of me and my sister would never find me because like anything in life, I was always better than my sister. The last time I ever played hide and seek was when I was a college pastor in my previous church and I played it with my college students at church. If you know, you know, church in the dark is the best place to play hide and seek. I remember I went to the church kitchen, found a space underneath the kitchen sink. And you know those blue water jugs in front? I hid myself in there and then put those water jugs in front of me and no one could find me for 30 minutes. They're like calling my name, "Where are you, Pastor Paul? Where are you?" They couldn't find me into the point where I just got bored. So, I was like, all right, I just came out of the hiding. I'm here. You guys suck at this game. That was the last time I played hide-and-seek.
You see, hiding is fun when you're a kid. Or hiding is fun when it's just games. But hiding as an adult, but hiding in real life, hiding not just physically, but hiding in your secrets, hiding in your flaws, hiding in your shame, it's not so fun anymore. And even just this morning church, many of you came today here hiding. But you're hiding behind your best Sunday clothes, but you're hiding between behind your smiles coming in. And especially after service when somebody asks you, "Hey, how are you doing? How was your week?" Oh, you want to hide so bad they can't ever know how your week really was. But church, as we'll see today, you and I, we were never meant to live in hiding. But God never designed you for a life of shame and hiding. No, he designed you for a life of freedom. He designed you for joy. God never intended you to spend your entire life just running and hiding from you who you really are. And that's exactly what we're going to talk about from this passage this morning. The title of my message today is the game hide-and-seek. And if you're taking notes, if you want to follow along with the road map it's taking us, first we're going to talk about the lie that all of us believe in. Secondly, we're going to talk about the nakedness that we feel because of that lie. And then thirdly, we're going to wrap it up with the covering, the clothing that he gives. The lie that all of us believe today, the nakedness that we all of us feel today, and the covering that all of us can have if you gave your life to Jesus today.
Let's begin with the first point, the lie that we believe. In Genesis chapters 1 and 2, we see that God created the world in 6 days. He created Adam, the first man, and from his rib, from his side, he created Eve, the first woman. And now we're here in chapter 3 of Genesis, we see the devil himself in the form of a serpent who comes to Eve and starts his scheme. I read it in verse 1, chapter 3, he said to the woman, "Did God actually say, you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?" You know, I have an agreement with my wife to make sure that golf doesn't become my idol, that I learn to spend my money wisely, that I can only golf once a week. And I've been really good at keeping that promise. But every now and then, my close close pastor friends, like the serpents they are, they go, "Did Sally really say once a week?" One of these guys, they're like, "Did Sally say you should try to do once a week or you can only do once a week?" I got a serpent, get behind me. I'm going to crush your head with my heel. No, they're bad friends, serpent friends, pastor friends. But that's exactly what's happening here in our passage today, church.
You see, back in Genesis chapter 2, verses 16 and 17, this is what God actually said. He said, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, just that one tree, you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat it, you're going to die." He says, "You can eat from every tree in the garden except for just one." But the serpent comes here, he twists the word of God and he says, "Did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?" That's not what he said. God said you can eat of everything except for one. And the serpent comes and did he say you can't eat from any other trees? And then look at what Eve says in verses 2 and 3. "Well, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, this is what Eve's thinking, the woman, "You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden." She got that right. But then she goes, "Neither shall you touch it, lest you die." God never said, "If you touch it, you're going to die." No, he only said, "If you eat of it, you will die." So, Satan's scheme is working and he's not doubting God's word, he's just twisting it. And seeing that Eve's now being a little shaky, the serpent goes for the kill move in verses 4 and 5. The serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die, though. For God knows when you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
In other words, the serpent is planting this [snorts] lie in Eve's heart. He's saying, "There's no way God will actually kill you just for that. He's just scaring you. He doesn't want you to be like him. He doesn't want you to have your eyes open. He wants you to be small and far and distant." And church, I think that's the same lie that the serpent, that the enemy is whispering to you and me today, that if you obey God, if you actually listen to what he said and do what he said, you're never going to be happy. That's the lie. You're going to miss out. You're never going to reach your full potential. You're never going to thrive and flourish in life if if you listen and do what God said. Because that's how sin works. That's how the enemy fights for your heart. He doesn't try to make you that God existed. No, that's too hard. He doesn't try to make you even the word doubt if the word of God. No, what he does, he just needs you to start doubting one thing. It's his character. It's his goodness. He wants you to doubt so bad that he, a god, is actually for someone like you. Hear me when I say this, church. The lie that the enemy wants you to believe is this, that you can't actually trust God. That God is not good enough, that he's not kind enough, that you can't trust his heart and his love for you. But he says, "Do you know who you can trust, though? You can trust yourself," the enemy says. [snorts] Because if God can't be trusted with your life, you have to take care of yourself. You got to be in the driver's seat. You better take over and start driving and writing your own story. You got to be your own god.
You see, the test in the garden that we see here was never just about a tree or a fruit. It was always ultimately about who's in charge. Because at the end of the day, God could have chosen any trees in that garden, but he decided to choose this one because it was never about the tree, it was always about trust. That's what the test was about. And notice how God never explains to Adam and Eve why they shouldn't eat of it. He never explains. He doesn't say, "If you eat of it, it might be poisonous, so don't eat it." Right? He doesn't even say, "Adam and Eve, if you eat this, every descendant that comes after you, they're going to live in brokenness and mess and sin and death and they're headed towards judgment." He doesn't even explain what would happen. He just says, "Don't eat from that one tree." No explanation. Because as Pastor Tim Keller says, if God gave explanation, it would have been a cost-benefit analysis. You'd still be in the driver's seat. But think about that, church. If God laid out every reason and you obeyed him because the reasons that God gave you made sense to you, that's not trust. It's just a transaction. That's not obedience because you only did it because you decided that that's worth it. Right? What if you felt that God was telling you not to take that future job with that good opportunity in front of you, but it just feels so right? But you know deep down maybe that's not the will of God. What would you do? But what if God told you in your dream, in your vision, whatever it may be, "Hey, that job offer you're about to take, it looks good right now, but 5 years from now, you're going to lose your marriage, you're going to lose your family, you're going to be successful, but you're going to wake up empty and all alone." What would you do? Oh, no brainer, you're not going to take that job. But not because you trusted him, but because it made sense to you. You're still deciding. You're still driving.
You see, God was never trying to be a dictator demanding blind obedience from Adam and Eve. He didn't tell them not to eat of the tree because he was scared they would actually become like him. No, he was asking for something deeper than just their obedience. He was asking for their faith. He was asking for trust. He was asking them, "Trust me as your creator. Trust me as your provider. Trust me as your God." And that's exactly why the serpent says, "If you eat of that tree, you going to be like God." Because when you choose to disobey God, you are placing yourself in the place of God. And isn't that what we do if we're honest? And isn't that the root of every problem of your life today? Why do you hustle? Why do you grind so much to the point of burnout and exhaustion? Why do you live in this endless cycle of working and performance and achievement? Because somewhere deep down you don't really trust that God really loves you for who you are. So, you feel a need to earn and secure that love. That you need to be successful enough, beautiful enough, rich enough, impressive enough to be loved. Why are you always so anxious? Why is this generation a generation of anxiety? Because you have an idea of what your life is supposed to look like. And somewhere deep down you don't trust that God is going to get that right. So you have to make that right. That's why you stay up at night stressing, drowning in anxiety. Why are you in and out of relationships? Why are you Why Why are you always trying to be in a relationship? Because maybe you're afraid that God might not come through and give you a partner that you need. So you rush into relationships or you stay in toxic relationships because you feel like if you don't take control and do this, God will never come through. Why is it so hard to be generous with your time and your money? Why do you live such a stingy, self-centered, self-centric life? Because somewhere deep down in your heart you're thinking, "Oh man, if I let go of this, will God provide? Will I have enough?" You see, generosity is never a money problem. It's always a trust problem. You don't trust God that he is Jehovah Jireh who is providing for you.
You see, church, this is the root cause of all of your problems. Any problem that you can name in this broken world, this is the source of every problem of your messy life, believing the lie that God can't possibly be trusted. That he's not that good. That he's not that loving. That if you trust him, if you obey him, you're not going to be happy. And slowly but surely we begin to put ourselves in the place of God and we climb into the driver's seat of our own lives. The seat that was never ours to even begin with. And we believe that it's only when we trust ourselves, only when we are in control, only when we're driving in the driver's seat that we'll finally be happy. That we'll actually start to flourish. But until you know this, >> [snorts] >> until it doesn't feel that way, until you find out one way or another we're actually not that happy when we take control.
Which leads us to our second point then, the nakedness we feel. So, Eve here, the woman, falls for that serpent's lie, that temptation that in order to be happy trust yourself, don't trust God, and she eats the fruit, gives it to her husband. By the way, if you look at the story, it seems like the woman's at fault. Did you know Adam's right there the time? Just watching this happen. She gives it to him and he's like, "Okay, I'll eat it." And look what happens next, verse 7. "Then the eyes of both Adam and Eve were opened and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths." Just like the serpent promised, their eyes were opened, but instead of becoming like God, their eyes were opened to their nakedness, to their shame. But here's the thing, they've been naked this whole time. They don't know what clothes is. But the moment they disobeyed God and ate of that fruit and took the place of God for themselves, for the very first time they realized they were naked and they were ashamed. Technically, nothing physically about them changed, but all of a sudden they couldn't stand their own nakedness. They couldn't stand being seen and exposed like that in front of God and in front of each other. Why? Because the perfect relationship they once had with God, the kind where they could actually be completely naked, completely vulnerable, and still know that they were fully loved and fully accepted, that relationship was now broken by Adam and Eve's sin. And now nakedness has become the sense of being unacceptable. That if you are completely exposed and seen, you will not be loved and accepted.
But because of sin, even my dog feels shame. I was talking to my wife about this this morning. I got a 10-year-old boxer that I had since I was in college. And probably she said my wife said it's my fault, probably because of my fault, but every time, I kid you not, true story, she farts, which is deadly and has been deadly for 10 years. She [snorts] farts in front of us, she looks at us, and she gets up in shame and walks away. Kid you not. Chat said dogs can't feel shame, but my dog feels that shame. She's been trained that, "Oh man, if I do this, I'm no longer loved." Which is true. For a couple of minutes, she's not loved. It's deadly, right? But what about you, church? What about you? What shame are you carrying today? Maybe it was something crazy that you did back when you were drunk and you wish you could just take that back. Or maybe it was a sexual decision that you made with your ex. Or maybe it's your never-ending battle with pornography. Or maybe it was that one big mistake or that one big screw-up that changed the trajectory of your life. Or maybe it's something that happened to you. Someone took advantage of you. Someone violated you. Someone cheated on you. What is it for you? >> [clears throat] >> For me, it was my addiction to alcohol when I was 21, all the nights of getting drunk, and blacking out, and doing stupid things that I would never do sober, and wondering how is God going to make me a pastor. It was my secret sexual sins and addiction to pornography that I felt I couldn't tell anyone. I couldn't tell my pastor because he was my boss. I felt like I couldn't tell my wife, who was my girlfriend back then, because I thought she would leave me. I couldn't tell my seminary friends because I thought they would look down on me and judge me. And I just felt so disqualified in ministry. I just felt so gross. So disgusting. Like a fraud. If I'm honest, there are still moments even now where I'm reminded time and time again how sinful how messed up I can be. How broken I can be as a husband, as a son, as a pastor, and as a friend and feeling like there's something wrong with me. That I'm just not good enough. Cuz I wouldn't like me either but on the other side. Because shame church remember it's not about what you did. Shame is always about who you are. Because guilt tells you you did something wrong, but shame tells you you are somebody wrong. You are a messed up person. And what does this shame do? It isolates you. It makes you want to hide because deep down we believe that if anyone knew the real me, I won't be loved. I won't be accepted. Pastor Tim Keller again he says it this way the essence of the human condition now after that sin is that we feel like we can only be loved if we're not fully known.
So what do we do? Just like Adam and Eve we try to cover ourselves not with fig leaves but with everything else right? We try to cover ourselves with our careers. If I just become successful enough maybe people won't care about my past and they'll accept me and love me. We try to cover ourselves with our image. If I just look good on the outside, the clothes, the makeup, the body, the social media post, maybe then no one will care about what's really going on on the inside. We try to cover ourselves with our religion. If I just serve enough, if I give enough, if I look spiritual enough on Sundays, no one's going to question what I do Monday through Saturday. And before you know it we've become experts at hiding. Hiding behind the fig leaves to cover our nakedness, to cover our shame, to cover our badness, our wrongness. But not only do we try to hide from each other, make sure you don't see who I really am, we actually hide from ourselves, too. Look what happens when God asks Adam and Eve what happened. Verse 12, Adam says, "The woman you gave me, she gave that fruit to me. It's her fault." And in verse 13, Eve goes, "Well, it's not my fault, the serpent's deceived me and made me eat of the fruits." Excuses. But don't we do this, too, church? Don't we try to make excuses and have just and try to justify why we are the way we are? Oh, it's my parents. Oh, it's my upbringing. Oh, it's because of that person or that one moment. Oh, it's because of the government or it's because of them, whoever they may be. You see, if we're honest with ourselves, we're not only ashamed by seeing by others, we're ashamed to see our true selves, as well. Isn't that why some of you just drown yourself in alcohol or scroll for hours or numb yourself with nicotine or drugs just so you don't have to sit alone with your thoughts because you can't bear to find out who you really are? Isn't that why some of you are keeping yourself so busy all the time because if you ever slow down, you have to face with you. Isn't that why some of you are trying to do so much good works for this world to convince yourself that you're a good person and not a messed up person? And before you know it, you spend your whole life trying to hide, trying to cover who you really are because you want to be loved and you want to be accepted. And church, can I just say, and I think you know this, too, that's a miserable way to live your life. That's not freedom. That's not a life of happiness that Adam and Eve thought they were getting when they ate that fruit. You see, this was never God's original design for you to live in shame, to live in hiding, to live in isolation. No, you were created to be known and loved at the same time. But just like Adam and Eve before they ate of that fruit, before they wanted to become their own gods, before they believed that God couldn't be trusted, before their eyes were open to their own nakedness, but because of sin, we feel like today we can only have one. Either you're fully exposed and fully known or you're fully loved and fully accepted. Never both. And no matter how hard we try to cover ourselves, no matter how many fig leaves you can hold in your hands, it does not work, church. It never works. And then we're left stuck living a life of hiding, not as a game anymore. Not for fun. Hiding from God. Hiding from each other. Hiding from ourselves. Because of shame. Just maybe that's you this morning. You've been hiding for so long, you've forgotten what it's like to be found. You've been wanting and waiting for someone to just come and find you and pull you out of hiding. Someone to finally know the real you and to love and accept the real you. Thank God that our God is a God who doesn't leave you in hiding in your shame. Because we have a God who finds us right where we are, in hiding, in your shame, but he loves you too much to leave you right there.
Which brings us to our last point then, the covering that he gives. As soon as they realized that they're naked and they're exposed, Adam and Eve they covered themselves in leaves and then it says in verse eight, they hid themselves from the presence of God the Lord among the trees in the garden. But look at what God does in verse nine, but the Lord God called to Adam and he said to him, "Where are you?" "Where are you?" Doesn't God know everything? Doesn't God see everything? Doesn't he already know Adam and Eve exactly where GPS coordinate they're hiding amongst trees in the garden? Listen to what Pastor Preston Morrison says, God wasn't asking Adam, "Where are you?" because God didn't know the answer. God was asking Adam, "Where are you?" because Adam didn't know the answer. Because Adam needed to know how he ended up here. How he and his wife went from walking with the Lord in the cool of the day to hiding from their God. How they went from being fully known and fully loved to now naked and ashamed and embarrassed and afraid. And church, I think God is asking the same question to you and me this morning. "Where are you?" >> [snorts] >> Not because he needs to know, because we don't know. He's not asking you where are you locationally because it was never the city that you lived in that was the root of your problem. It was never the family you grew up in that was the root of your problem. It wasn't the school, it wasn't the job, it wasn't the relationship, it wasn't even the church that you were hurt in. No, the root cause underneath all your problems was always a matter of where you were not locationally but spiritually with God. "Where are you?" What lies of the enemy did you start believing that led you here, church? Where are you? "Why are you hiding from him and others today? Where are you? Why are you working so hard to cover yourself up? Why? What are the fig leaves of your life that you are grasping for dear life to cover yourself?
And here's the thing about sin, church. Sin always has a price. A perfectly righteous God, he cannot just look the other way to your sin. He can't just sweep it under the rug and pretend like nothing happened cuz that means God is not fair. He's not just. But think of it this way, you borrowed my iPhone. borrowed my iPhone and he used it and he dropped it and shattered my screen. Now, he committed a sin against me, a grievous sin. His job's on the line. Either he pays for it or I pay for it. Either he pays for the repair, I pay for the repair, or I got to eat up the cost of living with a shattered screen. That's how sin works. So what does God do to the sin of Adam and Eve? He pronounces the curse, the curse of sin and death that he promised that he would. And all the suffering, all the brokenness, all the things that we feel wrong about this life enters this world. And this is the Bible's explanation of all that is wrong with your life and mine. That God created a world that was good and perfect. He created us without shame. He created us in perfect communion with him to be fully known, to be fully loved with nothing to hide. But that sin, this sin entered and destroyed it all. It was sin that left us separated from the perfect communion with God. Sin is why you live in hiding. Sin is why death entered this world and we deserve every bit of it. Just even yesterday, this week, we deserve >> [snorts] >> what's coming. But thank God that he doesn't leave us there. Thank God that while we are a people that loves to hide in our shame, he is a God that loves to seek and to draw near and to find us and get us out in the middle of our shame.
Look at verse 21, and the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. Church, have you ever had a moment when you finally told someone your deepest, darkest or your worst flaws, your heaviest shame that you told nobody about? And when you told them, instead of judgment, instead of rejection, they actually accepted you. They actually appreciated you for trusting them with that information. They covered you with love. Have you ever had that moment? It's one of the most redemptive, healing, comforting moments and emotions you can feel. It's the one that we're feeling or we're chasing after all the time. To be known and loved at the same time, both. And church, that's what God is doing in verse 21. Adam and Eve are covering themselves with fig leaves, but they're still hiding cuz it's not working. So before he sends them out of the garden, God makes them a covering, not from leaves, not from anything Adam and Eve made for themselves, but from something God made himself for them. A garment of skin. >> [clears throat] >> And in that garden, God was showing Adam and Eve that even in the midst of their sin, even while they're still hiding, God was already making a covering without even them knowing. Not because they deserved it, not because they earned it, but just because that's who our God is. Church, the only way you and I can be actually and truly happy in this life is not just to be accepted, just being loved. But again, you need to you need both. You need to be exposed and fully known and still accepted and loved at the same time. But because we believe the lie that God won't actually forgive us, that God won't actually cover us, there's no way he will actually love the real you, you never feel safe enough to come to him as you truly are with every sin, with every failure, with every mistake, and with every hidden thing. So, we hold on to all the fig leaves of our lives, and that's why it was God who came after Adam and Eve first. Who sought after them while they were still hiding to cover their sin, to cover their shame himself. And it is that God, that same God who comes after you today, even this morning, despite your hiding, despite your efforts to cover everything about you, he still loves and delights to draw near to you. And he loves and delights and ecstatic about seeking after you to cover you, not to judge you, not to condemn you, but to clothe you and cover you with his garments of skin.
Listen to what Glen Scrivener says about this skin. Somewhere in that garden, while Adam and Eve were busy hiding, an innocent creature who had nothing to do to do with this tree died so that the guilty could be clothed. In other words, something had to die to cover the shame of another. Something else had to shed its blood to cover what they couldn't cover on their own. But the garment of skin, that skin could only go so far. It wasn't enough to undo that curse of sin. Right? It couldn't fix what sin had broken between them and God. It couldn't cover the deepest shame of their hearts because that garment of skin, it was never meant to be the final answer to your shame and mine. It was meant to be a sign. It was meant to be a preview. It was meant to point you to the ultimate covering, to another garden, to another tree, and then to another sacrifice of death. You see, in that first bright sunny paradise of a garden of Eden in Genesis 3 that we read, God said to Adam and Eve, "Obey me about this tree. If you just obey, you will live. You will thrive, and you will flourish." But then thousands of years later, God turned to his son in another garden, in a dark, gloomy, joyless garden, and he said to his own son, "Obey me about that tree, the cross, and you will die. You will You will be crushed." And unlike Adam, what did Jesus do? Knowing if he obeyed about the tree that he would be crushed for you and for me, he obeyed. And as again, Tim Keller says, Jesus climbed the tree of death of the cross and turned that into a tree of life for you and for me. Because Jesus knew, church, that the only way to undo the curse of Adam and Eve, what they did in that first garden, the only way to break the power of sin and death was to go to the cross and pay the penalty that you and I owe for our sins, to become the ultimate sacrifice, to shed the most innocent blood, to give up his own life for the sins of another.
Remember that lie that we need to trust ourselves because God can't be trusted. The There's no way that you can trust God, that he actually loves you and accepts you. So, we need to take more control over our lives. Remember that lie? That's what sin is. We're trying to put ourselves in the place of God. That leads you to only more anxiety, only more comparison, only more envy and stress and discontentment. But what does Jesus do, and what does he show us on the cross? When we do every part of our lives and efforts to put ourselves in the place of God, on the cross, God comes to take the place of man, of you, and of me. To take the curse you deserved, to pay the price that you and I owed, shedding the most innocent blood for the guilty like you and me, and providing for us a covering that we could never make for ourselves. To show us, to prove to us, to undo the lie that we've believed our entire lives. That God can't be trusted, that he's not that good, that he's not that loving. But hear me when I say this, church. A God who would put himself in your place, a God who willingly lay down his life to become the sacrifice that covers your sin and your shame, the one who obeyed about the tree and was crushed in your place, now that God you can trust. That God is that loving. He's that good. To him you can actually surrender your life to to that kind of God, you can come to to trust. And your most broken, shattered, messy self, and know and believe and trust that he will cover you, and love you, and accept you so fully and so completely.
As the praise team comes up and I land this plane, remember the whole point of this whole sermon series that we're doing in through the Old Testament, is to see on every page, every verse, every word, Jesus and Jesus alone. Because the story that we just read in Genesis 3 is not about us. The story of Adam and Eve is not about you. It's not an inspirational story to motivate you to try harder, draw near to God with everything you have and all that you are. That's not the point. The story of Adam and Eve, it's not about coming to God in repentance and confession so that then he can love you and accept you. That's not the point. It's not even about you trying to stop placing yourself in the place of God in your life. That's not the point cuz you can't do that anyways. What's the point? It's about Jesus. Jesus is the point who draws near to you first when you wanted nothing to do with him, when you were hiding among the trees of your shame, when you were holding on to every fig leaves of your life, when repentance and confession is the last thing you ever want to do because you feel so guilty and shameful, when you spent your entire life believing the lie that you know more than him, you should trust yourself more than him. In those moments, in that moment, you have a God who still comes to you. Not to judge. Not to condemn. But to seek after you, to to find you, to love on you, to pull you out of hiding, not to expose you, but to cover you. And it's only when you see what he did for you on that tree of death, only when you see to what length he went [music] to give you back that tree of life. It's only to the degree that you understand and [music] you grasp what kind of love that he loves you today, this moment with which with an unconditional, sacrificial, seeking after, relentless, never giving up kind of love, the love of a God who would take the place of his own rebellious, adulterous people. It's [music] only to that degree, church, that your heart will begin to burn and be set ablaze. That your heart will begin to actually trust and believe [music] that he really is that good. That he can be trusted wholeheartedly. that it's only in him you can be known fully and you can be loved completely [music] at the same time because that's the kind of savior that Jesus is for you and for me.
So, wherever [music] you are morning church, maybe you've been hiding for a long time. Maybe you walked in here today carrying a lot of [music] shame that you've never told anyone. Or maybe you're just burnt out, you're tired from trying to cover yourself [music] with external looks and beauty and accomplishments and success. You can stop hiding now. [music] Like now. Because he already knows where you are. He already knows why you're hiding. Well, he already knows the fig leaves you've [music] chosen to hide yourself. And he already knows the real you. But he still went to the cross for you. The real you, the broken [music] you, the messed up you, the ashamed you. All you have to do is trust him. All you have to do is let go of those fig leaves. >> [music] >> All you have to do is stand and let him cover you. And he can do that >> [music] >> now. Would you bow your heads with me and close your eyes.