[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 5pm or Wednesdays at 7pm if you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, you can find us
[email protected] be sure to subscribe to this podcast as well as our Sermons podcast. Madison Church of Christ Sermons. Thanks again for stopping by. I hope this study is a blessing to you.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: Jason and I are starting a new series tonight called Encounters with God. We are really excited about this for several reasons. Number one, the topic is awesome, but I have always wanted to get to teach with Jason, and so now I think this is the first time we've.
[00:00:51] Speaker A: Been in classes together.
[00:00:52] Speaker B: Yes. Yes, that's right. Even in class at Faulkner, I think they separated us. I sat on one side and he had to sit on the other. So now we're getting to teach, which is a liability.
[00:01:03] Speaker A: We apologize in advance. Our humor is very similar. So now you get twice the potency.
[00:01:08] Speaker B: Yes. So good luck. But what I love about what we're going to do, basically, is this week I've prepared the material, Jason's going to supplement. Next week he'll prepare the material and I'm going to supplement. So that's how we're going to organize it. And as you can see on the screen, the title is Encounters with God. And what that is going to be covering and talking about is all the different moments in scripture where people had a one on one or two people on one, I guess we could say an encounter with God. And our goal as we go through this, which is going to be mostly encounters from the Old Testament, a few from the New Testament, is we have two goals. We want to learn, number one, what this tells us about God, what we can learn about him and the way he handles people, the way he handles us. But the second part is what we can take from this. Because when you hear even the title Encounter, that might seem a little bit like almost like a mystical term and uncomfortable term. We don't use that a lot, necessarily. But the idea of an encounter is something that we have all the time, right? We encounter situations, we encounter people when we go to the grocery store, when we go to school, whatever that is. Encounters are things that we're used to. But here's what we want us to learn from. As we learn from other people that had encounters with God, we want to learn from them how we can take these encounters and apply them to our lives. Because we're going to have moments where we encounter something difficult in our families. We're going to have moments where we encounter something difficult at work. And maybe some of you have a child that's going through a difficult time. Maybe some of you have a parent that's going through a difficult time. I was even on the way here talking to one of of my family members that's caring for another family member. And, you know, she basically just said, hey, listen, you and Laurian, y'all have to enjoy the time you have together. Because not that I'm enjoying, it's just not what I thought it was going to be. And so we all have different moments where we encounter, how do I handle this and what can I learn from it? That's what we want to learn from all of these biblical examples of how to apply them to us. And the neat thing about the word encounter is very unique in the fact that it's a noun and a verb. And I know we don't have probably a ton of English professors in here, but we have mostly engineers. But I do think, isn't that interesting that it's a word that can be both a noun and a verb? And here's why I think that's important, is what we're going to notice about all of these different encounters throughout Scripture is that they are a moment, they are an event. Right? A noun is what a person, place, or a thing. Like it is something that happened, but at the same time, it's a verb in the fact that it's doing something. What I hope that we take from all of these is not just to be like, well, that was a cool event. No, this was a real thing that happened, a real moment in time. But also it's supposed to do something to us. It's supposed to change us. It's supposed to help us grow. And so that's our prayer as we go through this, that we don't see it just as that. And as we try to apply these biblical examples, we want to keep the main focus, the main focus. And it's this number one encounters with God are not about us. Now you might think, well, I learned a lot, I've changed. Yes, but what was happening is not about you. It's kind of like the Bible. The Bible is not about us. The Bible is about God, but the good news is he includes us in that it's about the personhood of him. Number two, these can happen anywhere. And that's kind of what we want to see as we go through all these different moments. Some of them happen in a desert. Jason's going to cover one that happens in a father in law's pasture. There's going to be moments that happen by Riverside. We hope to take away from this. That the different moments that we have, it can happen anywhere, that we take advantage of those. Number three, they have to produce fruit. That if what we learn from this doesn't change us and help us grow, we're missing something, which is the fourth point. It requires from us a choice. So that's kind of introing this noun and verb. Jason, anything you want to change? Add.
[00:05:21] Speaker A: Adjective.
[00:05:22] Speaker B: Adjective. Okay, so here's the question we want to start with tonight. How did your parents handle your very bad decisions growing up? Now, we're not. I have nothing to add to this, really.
How about you? Okay.
Okay. Yeah. My mom's watching online and she can't say anything, but.
So I really don't want feedback. Not because I don't want to hear what you have to say, but we're going to have a lot of opportunity for feedback in a second. But I want to pose this question just because I want to get you thinking, because I don't know about y'all. The way that my parents handled my bad decisions, some of the things I'm like, I'm going to do that exact thing. I did one of them tonight.
I don't like that food. Go to your room. Like, I don't know if y'all had that one. I'm not saying that's the best way to handle it, but, you know. Yes.
The other thing is you look at what they do and you're like, well, I don't want to do that thing. Right. And so I'm going to give you an example that I've shared with you. I think it was about a year and a half ago. I was trying to find it on file. I think it was about a year and a half ago. That kind of fits with the one we're going to look at tonight.
And this was when it was right before a picture day at school.
And I purposely did not send this to Selena Koester for her trunk or treat when she gave all the pictures of yearbook pictures. But I had decided that I needed a haircut. And mom and dad were not people that if I said, hey, I need a haircut. Don't take me to get a haircut. I decided to take matters in my own hands. Go into my mom's sewing room, grab her. Some of y'all know what these are. They're called ginger shears. I'm not supposed to touch them anyway. She said, they're way too expensive. I left them in the yard once. So she said, don't touch them. So I grabbed them, I cut a little bit, and I was like, well, now this is uneven. And before you knew it, basically, this is what I look like.
The hair went very high. And so I did what a lot of people do. I remember I got the hair, put it in the toilet, flushed it, and then I got the scissors because I was like, wait, I brought them in here, Now I gotta walk back out. So I hid them between the trash can liner and the actual trash can, hoping she wouldn't notice. Okay, now here's the problem. I grew up in a house that was 1,350 square feet, all right? And then when she calls you to dinner, you get to a point where, guess what? You can't hide it any longer. And so she's like, you know, it's time to come to the table. I was like, no, I'm good. You know what? No, you got to come to the table. So I come to the table. You know, you try to keep your head down, but you can't hide the evidence. And I can't remember which parent asked this, but one of them said, andrew, do you have something to tell us?
Now, the reason I oppose that is in a way, that's the way God handles this moment with Adam and Eve. I love the way he, as we're going to talk about tonight, simultaneously gives mercy, but also judgment. He gives mercy, but says there's got to be change, right?
He gives grace, but he also says things can't keep going on this way, right? And we're going to learn a lot about God. And I was telling Jason this today that I don't know what Yalls thoughts are about. Why, you know, the whole example of Adam and Eve is in there. Besides, what's the first example of man and woman? I used to always think the whole reason it's there is to show us where sin came from. But the more I've gotten into this, the main thing I've taken away is this is not in here just to tell us where sin came from. This is in here to tell us about God, but also to answer this important question. About God. And I think we all wonder it sometimes. And it's this, who is God when I sin?
I want you to think about that question for a second.
Who is God when I sin? And so as you think about that question, let's get into the text. So if someone will read. I'm going to get you guys to read the slides. We're going to work through the text together. This is Genesis 3 verses 1 through 3. And I want you to look for things that you learn about God in this encounter that Adam and Eve had. Go ahead.
[00:09:21] Speaker C: Now, the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden? The woman said to the serpent, we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, you must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden and you must not touch it or you will die.
[00:09:42] Speaker B: Alright, so I want to point out a few things. One of those is we have hindsight that Adam and Eve did not have.
When we read this, when we hear the serpent, who do we think?
Satan. Okay, well, they didn't know that. Okay. And now Revelation tells us that and we know that from other parts of scripture. But what's interesting, if you look at the Hebrew there, the same word that is talking about the created things that God created was the same word that is used for here, the serpent. So I want us to understand going in, it's not like he was like, hey, I'm Satan. Like I used to think, how in the world could you do that and listen to that? That's obviously Satan. That's not necessarily the case, not letting them off the hook. But we do have to understand that background. The second thing is this, if you notice this little detail that kind of shows you that there must have been a talk about it between Adam and Eve or there had to be some kind of understanding within her that she added this line.
You, God said that you must not touch it.
If you were being technical in the going through the Bible, God never told her not to touch it.
So she added that. Or maybe Adam, we don't know. Could it have been a situation where they. Because we know as we're going to get to in a second, they were really tight and close with God knowing they didn't want to disappoint him, that maybe it was Adam that stepped up and said, listen, God told us not to do this, but I would actually say it's Probably a really good idea. Let's don't even touch the thing. Yeah, that's a good. We don't know. But again, those are little details that kind of do point to the fact that something was probably going on around them. Jason, any thoughts? Things?
[00:11:21] Speaker A: I think I'm very guilty. What you said about looking at Adam and Eve, like, how did they not know? Especially with Israel, we think of being at the Red Sea. You know, it's like you guys just saw the 10 plagues. Like, how do you so quickly lose sight of who God is in your life? And I kind of. I go with a very judgmental approach without realizing they're living this out in real time and they're finding this information out. And if you've ever done something that you immediately have regret for, that's right where I go here, that sinking feeling of, oh, man, I did it. I did what I'm not supposed to.
To me, that's one thing that really jumps out. Like you highlighted there, just the fact that today, in 2024, it's easy to look back judgmentally without first putting yourself in their situation.
[00:12:03] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:12:04] Speaker A: In the full context of the whole picture.
[00:12:05] Speaker B: Yeah. And so here's what it says. Next, someone will read this. Verses 4 through 6.
[00:12:10] Speaker A: You will not certainly die. The serpent said to the woman. For God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.
[00:12:27] Speaker B: All right? So one of the first things that I want to point out, and we're going to come back to another point, is this. Notice how he's trying to present God to them.
He's saying, look, when he said, oh, you're not going to die. God knows that when you eat it, you will be like him. So he's trying to bring God down to what their level. And I want us to hold onto that thought because that's one of the ways that Satan works. We talked about it the other day, right, with Jonah, how he always provides something, ready for us to go the opposite way, the way we shouldn't go, that he loves to, oh, it's not that big a deal, and give us peace about those sinful things. But here's the other thing I want you to notice what we also highlighted here. She also gave some to her Husband. What does it say?
Who was with her? How many of y'all, like me, for a lot of your life, thought that he shows up later or like, anybody? No, just me and a few. Okay. Yeah, I got a lot of folks shaking their head. I used to think that, you know, it was just this one. On one, Eve had the fruit and she ate it. And then Adam's like, hey, what you doing? And he's like, here, you know, try some of this. You know, and then ate it. Like, that's what happened. But we understand something from the text. He was with her the whole time.
Now, doesn't that tell you something about Adam? A little bit. At our men's retreat, we based it around a book called the Men We Need. And by the way, that is a book I highly, highly recommend. It is fantastic. But one of the things that that book talks about, it uses this to highlight our greatest need in men and for men today specifically.
And I've read a lot of books that are great on men. There's a book called Strong. There's a book called Fight. There's a book Wild at Heart. Those are all great books. Not speaking ill of those. I like them. But a lot of them are just like, go be manly.
Okay? But this book kind of deals with the part that I don't think we talk about a lot. And it's this. That the greatest really danger to men of God is passivity.
You know, being passive in your neighborhood, being passive in your family, whatever that area of life is. And so it was passivity with Adam that didn't step up and do something that ended up hurting other people. Any thoughts?
Okay, I'd like to pass on that pass.
There he goes. All right, someone read this for us real quick. Seven through nine.
The eyes of both of them were open, and they realized they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in.
[00:15:11] Speaker A: The cool of the day.
[00:15:13] Speaker B: And they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord called to the man.
[00:15:19] Speaker D: Where are they?
[00:15:21] Speaker B: Two things. They're highlighted. First one, they heard God. What?
Do y'all ever wonder what that was like?
What does he mean by walking?
Was it literal steps? We don't know. But here's what we do know that does signify there was fellowship, communion, right with them, which makes sense. You go back into Genesis. It says, let us make man in what our image.
And so we know Adam and Eve were created in the image of community, right? So that's why, you know, and by the way, how we in this room do community is different. You might say, well, I'm an introvert. I'm an extrovert. That's okay.
The way an introvert is going to do community is going to be different than an extrovert. But you remember back in this text that when he created Adam, it says that Adam was lonely.
But it was not because at that time Adam sinned.
It was not because he was imperfect. It was because he was made in the image of somebody that was perfect. And so what made him lonely was the fact, hey, I'm made in the image of God who needs community, that needs to be with other people. That's why he was lonely. And so here God gives them this fellowship. They're with him. How that walk happened, I don't know. But I was talking to Jason and some the other ministers when we were on our way to Birmingham today. We were talking about this in the car. Is, you know, there's a lot of things walking in the garden. You know, you had lions and bears and tigers and all these kinds of things. How did they know it was God walking? Must have been walking with them before. There must have been something before. The second thing is this.
Notice this gets back to what we talked about before that Adam was there when this all happened. He didn't call to the man and the woman, but he did call to the man.
Kind of interesting. All right, any thoughts?
[00:17:18] Speaker A: I just think there's definitely familiarity here that if you don't. If you just go right past it, you don't really think about that. But there's obviously some kind of interaction that happens with, I would assume, some regularity. And where you're headed next was interesting as calling specifically to the man first. God, obviously, I assume, knows where everybody is. There's all the pieces on his chessboard, and this is that I see that parent talking to the kid. What did you do? Or where are you? You'll get an opportunity to show themselves first. Right? But they were. They've already put some effort, realized they were naked. They. They put together coverings made of leaves. I think that's going to be significant here in a couple of verses.
So a little teaser for you.
[00:17:59] Speaker B: All right, who wants this one?
[00:18:01] Speaker E: He answered, I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid. And he said, who told you that you were naked?
[00:18:08] Speaker A: Have you eaten from the tree that.
[00:18:09] Speaker E: I command you not to eat?
[00:18:10] Speaker B: From track and write those three questions God asks. So what do you make of God asking questions like this? Where are you? Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from? Does God not know the answer to these questions? Well, I think we know the answer to that question. But why is, why are all these questions and what does this tell us about him?
[00:18:35] Speaker F: Yeah, also giving him an opportunity to say it, calling him on it. Because, you know, I mean, like, even as a parent, like, I know when, what they've done, but it means a lot more when they say, when they acknowledge it and they come forward as opposed to, you know, I know what you did, so you can tell me now or you know, you can have a different conversation.
[00:19:00] Speaker B: That's really good. You know, that's what we don't just always tell our kids necessarily. We do something, but we sometimes let them think about it and say it because it kind of means more when it's coming from them. All right, any other thoughts?
[00:19:14] Speaker E: I think it goes back to like the idea of free will and having the choice to like confess your sins and having the choice to like love God. I know he like just sinned, but in a way I think that confessing your sin to somebody else is a way of like loving them. Saying like, hey, this is something I did wrong. So giving them an opportunity to love him even after sin.
[00:19:37] Speaker B: That's awesome. Yeah. And God has always wanted us to.
[00:19:40] Speaker C: Confess our own sins.
[00:19:42] Speaker B: Yes. Yep. And so I want to. I think we are going to get to that in a little bit. But you think about what Adam and Eve did.
So what God wants from all of us is to be confessors and repenters. That's what he wants. You know, the Bible even talks about that. When we hold onto things and we don't confess it, it rots us on the inside.
It's like a plague. It hurts us physically, I believe also, but especially spiritually. But what you're seeing Adam and Eve do is to hide and blame. They're kind of like me with the hair and the scissors. Right. And so maybe a follow up, what causes us at times maybe to be a hider, as we're going to see in a blamer instead of a confessor and a repenter. Shame, shame, shame. Okay.
[00:20:33] Speaker F: Fear.
[00:20:34] Speaker B: Fear.
[00:20:35] Speaker F: Fear of the consequence.
[00:20:36] Speaker B: Fear of consequence. I think there's some other fears in there too. Sometimes we think we're smarter than we are.
Yeah.
Your parents? Yes. Yep. Yeah. They won't notice.
Just hairspray.
[00:20:50] Speaker G: It.
[00:20:51] Speaker C: We don't, you know, we don't naturally want to disappoint them. And so I think, you know, when you know that you've done something that's gonna hurt them, it makes you want to put off that acknowledgement.
[00:21:03] Speaker B: Yeah, but do y'all think there's something we can learn? And I'm not asking for, like, answers right now, but I just to think about it, because we're going to get to some application in a second about how we treat and handle sin in our families with our kids through questions. I do think that is something that we can kind of think on a little bit. All right, 12 and 13. This kind of gets dicey here, so go ahead.
[00:21:33] Speaker D: The man said, the woman you put here with me, she gave me some.
[00:21:36] Speaker E: Fruit from the tree, and I ate it. Then the Lord God said to the.
[00:21:40] Speaker B: Woman, what is this you have done?
[00:21:42] Speaker D: The woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate.
[00:21:45] Speaker B: I sent this to Jason. This is what I think of when I see this part. He's like, well, the woman you gave me, you know, and everybody. It's the blame game, right? Round and round and round that goes. And, you know, you think about what that blame does. Is it just, you know, there are certain sins. You know that. So I don't know how to explain this, but I think about blaming like this and envy, they're very similar in the fact that they're a sin that kind of double dips. And what I mean by that is it hurts in the beginning and it hurts again. Right. Some sin feels good at the beginning and then hurts later. Blame and envy and some other ones are kind of one of those that hurts the beginning and the end. Right? But. And I think that's what Satan wants us to get in a mindset of is. Well, I can't say things I can't confess, like Dale mentioned, and I don't want to mention anything. And so they're pointing at each other. And so this is what the Lord says to the serpent. Okay, someone read this real quick.
[00:22:45] Speaker G: So the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals. You will crawl on your belly. You will eat dust all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head and you will strike his heel. To the woman, he said, I will make your pains and childbearing very severe. With painful labor, you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you.
[00:23:22] Speaker B: While your reading's so great, please keep going. If you don't mind. You're like, I didn't sign up for that.
[00:23:26] Speaker G: Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commended you, you must not eat from it. Cursed is the ground because of you.
Through painful toil, you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken for dust. You are to dust. You will return.
Adam named his wife Eve because she would become the mother of all the living.
[00:24:05] Speaker B: Okay, so this little detail.
Did he first talk to Adam and Eve and give them a judgment? Kind of first, the serpent isn't that interesting.
And so what does that kind of tell you a little bit about God right now?
He who causes someone else to sin must be better than a millstone be tied around their neck. Yeah.
All right, we're going to come back to that. And then look what it says here. Whoever wants to read this?
[00:24:34] Speaker E: Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the Lord God said, the man has now become like one of us. Knowing good and evil, he must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the Tree of Life and eat and live forever. So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the Tree of Life.
[00:25:05] Speaker B: Okay, so there's one in that, but we're going to come back to it. What do we learn? This is the question we asked from the beginning that we want your feedback on. What are some things that you learned about God from this encounter?
[00:25:21] Speaker C: I think that God is willing to come down and meet us when we're sinning and, like, work through it with us.
And then even though we try to use little fig leaves and money sin to cover that shame, that he's willing to slaughter an innocent animal and give us true covering with that skin.
That's the biggest thing, is that he's willing to come meet us where we are sinning. He's not waiting for us to figure it out. He comes and meets us and has a relationship with us, and then he provides for us. And even if we have to Go through those natural consequences. He's going to provide.
We'll need it.
[00:26:01] Speaker B: That's awesome.
[00:26:03] Speaker A: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Right? That's the thing that jumps out to me the most is the part in bowl there. The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothes. I don't know how many times I've read this passage and just glanced over that part. Somewhere in college, it jumped out that they tried to create something that was inadequate to cover themselves. When their eyes were open and transparency really took place, they put forth effort to try to clothe themselves. And God, not so subtly, basically says, you, efforts are inadequate. And I feel like he's been putting forth effort to clothe us with his righteousness from this moment forward.
And even in the garden, unless there's some animal walking around without a skin, there was the death of an animal that occurred in order for them to be clothed properly.
I think that is something for us to really understand. I mean, the depth of our sin goes back to the garden. And the depth of our salvation also goes back to the garden. Earlier when we were talking about confession, one thing that popped in my mind was when you, when you give your kid the opportunity to confess right or wrong, or when any of us have an opportunity to confess right or wrong, we're faced with two choices, to profess truth or untruth.
And maybe this is trying to read too much into this, but I see Jesus in the garden here because Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. And so even in our confession of sin, the sin was wrong, clearly. And the word confess, I looked that up and it means to acknowledge or to agree fully. So there's even an element here of when we confess sin, we agree fully that what God, what you have said is right, what we have done is wrong.
So when we as Christians are truth tellers, when we profess truth, when we confess sin, we acknowledge what goes against God. And again, there's that element of sacrifice. That's right. Already here in the garden, we haven't even gotten to the cross, not even close to the cross. And yet we see this theme that's going to continue to build throughout Old Testament into the New Testament.
[00:27:57] Speaker B: Yeah. When you said that about confession.
Yes. God is still just like he does with us still. You know, there's reaping and sowing. Right. They made poor decisions, so they had their sowing, you know, physical things that happened and spiritual things that happened as a result of that. But he never stopped. Not. He always Made it safe to confess, that he always gave them a way to confess. And I just, I guess because this happened very recently, as in last night when your kid does something wrong. I felt like I used to with my kids be like, why did you do this? Or why would you, you know, like, did you do that? And it's kind of almost like, okay, like I'm not. And now trying to make it better to where they will actually confess. Like, listen, I am. I still love you. Okay, yes, there might be a consequence. There's going to be consequence. But I need you to tell me the truth. You'll feel better if you tell the truth. You know, that kind. There's a big difference. And it made me think back to a time when this was when I was at University Church in Faulkner, when I had a student in our campus ministry, that he was dealing with a sin. Well, he was dealing with pornography. And his mom. So his mom called me and she said, he won't talk to me. And I was like, okay, well tell him what happened. And she said, well, he said he was talking to you. And I was like, yeah, that's fine, he is. But what happened with y'all? And she said, well, you know, I found out and I caught him. And I said, okay, well what did you say? I was like, you know, how could my son do something like this? And I was, I was like, well, you know, it was hard to tell mom, especially as like a 23 year old BE like. So I think it might have had to do with that response, you know, I don't think you made it safe for him to want to continue to talk about it. How could my child do something I would, you know, the ashamed, you know, all of that. And yes, it's. And that's hard, right, when it's your own child and we're not things off the hook. But again, how we handle. There is a way to handle it to where it is a safe place to confess. And I think that is a reminder for us as a church too, to always provide a safe atmosphere for people to confess.
[00:30:18] Speaker G: Is this the first case where we are introduced to the Trinity?
[00:30:24] Speaker B: I would, I would think so. Because that would mean now the second use of us, wouldn't it?
Yes. Created us in his image. Yeah. Yeah. And that tells a lot too, doesn't it?
Yes.
[00:30:45] Speaker C: Going back to the question, I think we also learned that God is merciful and wants reconciliation. I know when I was younger, I viewed God driving them out of the garden as punitive and not to say that it's not. But I heard a different perspective that it was actually merciful because he didn't want them to remain that was apart from him, you know, forever. That they could live forever in a state that was not reconciled to him. And so that put a different perspective on it for me.
That he drove them out as a mercy to them and that he wanted to reconcile with them at some point.
[00:31:26] Speaker B: Yeah. That's awesome. Well, that was, you know, not only did he make them garments, but he placed on the east side of the garden a cherubim and a flaming sword. That is protection too. It was not easy. They were leaving a beautiful perfect place and. But in a way it was also protection. Any other things before we share some ones we see.
Alright, so number one, one of the things that we saw, God goes looking for them. Kind of gives you a little bit of a picture of Luke 15, doesn't it? And the prodigal Son.
And it's God is the one going after them even when they're hiding.
And he's like, I see you. He's like the ultimate, the best hider and seeker ever, you know, he's like, I see you. You know, but he goes looking for them.
The second one is this, that God lets them go after what they want.
Now that's a tough one. He doesn't want them to choose that. But does that tell you a little bit of something about God and us? A little bit that he gives them. Like for instance, we'll talk about it. Like the tree. Think about. I used to wonder, why is the tree in the garden? And when I have Bible studies with people, that's where I start and I ask that question, why do you think the tree was in the garden? And they say, well, as a choice, I'm like, that's exactly. The tree represents free will. Isn't it awesome that we have free will, that we serve a God that lets us choose Him? It's kind of like that quote, love is always the most powerful when it's chosen. And so he lets us choose Him. That's wonderful. But the scary thing is sometimes we choose what we choose wrong, right? Sometimes I pray God don't give my kids free will. I'm just kidding. But no, free will is great. But we also understand that with our choice comes poor decisions at times.
But it's that free will that he gives us to. Reason aside, yes, it did bring sin into the world, but it also, we can choose him again. So it's a blessing, but also is a huge responsibility. Any Other thoughts?
[00:33:37] Speaker F: I feel like sometimes we grow closer to God when we have messed up and we find our way back to him.
You know, that you realize how low you went, like what you did. And he's not scrapping you. He's not saying it's over. He welcomed you back with open arms.
I just feel like that kind of.
It gives you. Gives me this encouragement that he's a creator who loves me and instead of, you know, completely destroying his creation, he's given me another chance.
[00:34:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:34:19] Speaker A: A few chapters later, the destruction part, but.
[00:34:21] Speaker F: Sorry.
[00:34:21] Speaker A: No, no, just kidding.
Anyway, Spoiler alert. Talking there makes me think of the parable of the prodigal son.
The Father's love did not change, I don't think in depth for his son throughout that whole process. But the son's understanding of his father's love to me is what changes the most. I mean, the father, maybe I'm reading into it, seems heartbroken that he's choosing. I want the result of your death. But every day it seems like he's out there looking, right? And that's to me perfect analogy for God that he empowers us to choose or to not choose him. Because that is where the power is actually found is when we, when we choose him over and over again.
It's selfish in some ways because it's what's best for us. But it's also without that there is no relationship without choice. There's no real depth of relationship there. But I think our. When we sin and we come back, our perception of God, our understanding of his love for us is what actually changes, not his actual capacity to love us.
[00:35:19] Speaker B: Yeah, that's awesome.
Good points. Alright. Number three, this was mentioned earlier, Jason and Rachel back there actually, by the way, I didn't know. I was like, where's that voice coming from? But I don't know if you noticed something that they said there.
They mentioned that, you know, in order, unless there was a skin walking around, that something died in order for them to be clothed. That's really cool. You know, you. We're even going to talk about this as we go through Jonah over the next few weeks is setting the stage for we need a better Jonah. Right? We need a better prophet. Everything throughout the gospel is all it is not a New Testament. You see the gospel all throughout scripture and you see it there. But I also think about what do you think Adam and Eve felt like? So they obviously made some things for themselves and that wasn't enough. And so God gave them something better.
That's a Picture there. Right. We try to. I think you had mentioned it, you mentioned, like, money. We try to clothe ourselves with all sorts of things. And God's like, yeah, you can try that. That's the book of Ecclesiastes. Right. I tried money, I tried status. I tried wisdom. Didn't satisfy. He calls all those things under the sun hevel, which is nothing. It looked like it was something. Turns out it was nothing. I tried to clothe myself with that. It didn't deliver. And so here he gives them something better. And do you ever wonder maybe how they felt about receiving that after what they did? Kind of something to think about what that would have looked like. Any thoughts?
[00:36:53] Speaker F: I never thought about it until just now. But they used leaves, plants, and God was like, no, it's got to be from an animal. I mean, their two sons are about to do a very similar thing.
[00:37:06] Speaker B: Yep. And I've been reading through Leviticus, and it just reminds me that blood has to be shed for our sins to be redeemed. And same thing here.
[00:37:21] Speaker A: There's no shortcut with redemption. Right.
[00:37:24] Speaker B: I don't want to spend much time on this, but saw this quote, kind of made me think about them receiving that.
Would it have been difficult for them to receive it?
We find it much, much harder to forgive ourselves than it is for God to forgive us. First, John 3:20 says this.
For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart.
Let that soak in. I want to read that again. Whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart.
That is powerful. And when you think about it. So what he's saying is it's our own conscience that condemns us that beats us up, not God. Right now there is. We talk about the difference between. There's godly sorrow that leads to great gain. Right. There's a difference between the two. Between beating yourself up and, as was mentioned earlier, confession and repentance. All right, here's the next one. God shows mercy in the midst of judgment. Even in the middle of a. He gives them a judgment. Right. But even then, he still gives grace and mercy. So as we close this class tonight, how do God's judgment and mercy go together in this passage? And how do we offer grace, but yet not an endorsement of the sin? All right, let's deal with the first one. How do God's judgment. I want to hear more about the second one because I think we know the top one. But any thoughts on the first one?
How do God's judgment and mercy go together in this Passage, I think a.
[00:39:00] Speaker C: Big part, like, with the three questions and all. Honey, I think it's easy to assume that God is omnipotent in this moment, that he's coming forth and he knows what they've done, and he knows how it all played out, and he's just giving them the chance to be like, all right, you can tell me, you know, But I think in a way, like, I mean, obviously, you kind of have to read between the lines to see emotion in Scripture, but, like, for God to be coming up and expecting to find them. And then kind of like this gradual. You picture the smile falling from his face and just a heartbreak of, like, where are you? You know, like, who.
[00:39:35] Speaker B: Who told you this?
[00:39:36] Speaker F: And, like, did you. Did you break the rule?
[00:39:38] Speaker C: You know, and just that gradual realization on his part of, like, my communion is lost, and, like, this world that I've created is lost.
He's having to put together this plan to then redeem them all in this moment. And everything that he's made has just been totally corrupted. And so, like, I think in a way, it's. I mean, obviously he has to have judgment and there has to be punishment, but, like, the mercy comes from this desire to redeem his friends and his children in this world that he just made, and he's losing it as much as they were losing.
[00:40:16] Speaker B: Yeah. Awesome. All right, the second question. How do we offer grace as we look at this, but yet not an endorsement of the sin? How do we offer grace but yet not an endorsement of the sin? I know that could be a whole class. That's a heavy one, I think, to.
[00:40:34] Speaker D: Build on what you said. Right. So in God asking the questions, not only was he giving them the chance to acknowledge what they did, but I think he's reinforcing the relationship that he has with them as their Father. Right. And as we do with our kids, the original question you asked is, what. What did our parents do that we don't want to do? Right. And I think so much in the world we live in today, parents want to be friends with their kids. Right. And that's not what kids need. Whether you agreed or disagreed with how your parents raised you or disciplined you or whatever, I think showing that grace is just what she said earlier. I still love you, Right?
[00:41:17] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:17] Speaker D: I love you. No matter what you did. Right. The sin is not the person. Right.
No matter what you do, you can't be separated from my love. But at the same time, you did wrong or you didn't do what I asked you to do. So There are consequences. I'm still the adult. I'm still the person who makes the rules. Right. Until you get to the point where you can make your own rules.
[00:41:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:45] Speaker D: Right. For the parent, child relationship. Right. So you still have to. In this moment, he's reestablishing that relationship that he has. Right. And the role that they both have and then offering both the love, but then ultimately the punishment.
[00:42:07] Speaker B: Awesome. Awesome. Anybody else?
[00:42:11] Speaker D: I think it starts with not judging, but then getting dirty and helping that person through that sin.
[00:42:19] Speaker B: Because I think if you see somebody.
[00:42:20] Speaker D: Helping you through something, just like God offering therapeutically confess their sins, that helps see the need for redemption.
[00:42:32] Speaker A: I think his judgment leads to his mercy.
Kind of same thing. Our judgment. Hey, you did something wrong. We are to judge one another within the body of Christ according to the law of Christ. Right to the gospel. So I think that doesn't. It's not meant to disfellowship. The ultimate goal is re. Fellowship again, when there is that separation.
[00:42:53] Speaker B: Yeah. So I want to reread this to end class, and I encourage you to read it again tonight. And that's first. John 3. 20. I left out the very last part.
This is what it says. For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart. And then look what it says next. And he knows everything. So think about that for a second. The one that knows everything still, when our heart condemns us, he's greater than our heart. So let that encourage you, but also challenge you as you think about the things we shared tonight. Thank y'all.
