Freedom: The Tree Of Knowledge (Week 2)

[Music] hey everyone welcome to week two of freedom my name is rivera hambrick life groups pastor here at our south county campus i'm so glad you decided to join us today we are going to be talking about the tree of knowledge and that tree of knowledge is actually the tree of knowledge of good and evil and this is a very important lesson today and so i'm excited to get into it uh we're going to start right at the beginning because you've got to start at the beginning and then beginning in genesis the second chapter it says but god the lord warned him you may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil if you eat its fruit you are sure to die god is telling us a very important aspect here he's telling us how he approaches us and he approaches us as a loving father and he warns adam he's warning his son hey son do not eat of this fruit of this tree because if you do you will die and oftentimes god warns us but we don't see it as a warning we see it as a thread and we believe that god is threatening us and saying hey don't do that because if you do that you're going to die but that's not how our loving father approaches us our loving father says hey i really want you to win and i really want you to have life and that is the difference between the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil the tree of knowledge is one of us seeing god from an external point of view waiting for him to do something to us worried about what is he going to do if we mess up and we're trying to operate in perfection it is the law that is what keeps us in bondage and not in freedom it leads us to believe that god is a judge waiting to drop the axe on us and drop the hammer on us and call us guilty and have a sentence waiting for us on the other side and as a result we don't run to god but we end up running away from god hiding from him because there's judgment waiting on the outside with the external point of view and so these are the two different approaches when we we approach god so how did we get to this point well it all happened with the fall of mankind and i want to read to you and genesis in the third chapter um where it all began it says that the serpent was more clever than any of the wild animals the lord had made the serpent said to the woman did god really say you must not eat fruit 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 the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden do not even touch it if you do you will die you will certainly not die the certain serpent said to the woman god knows that when you eat the fruit from the tree you will know things you have never known before like god you will be able to tell the difference between good and evil the woman saw the trees fruit was good to eat and pleasing to look at she also saw that it would make a person wise so she took from the fruit and ate it she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it then both of them knew things they never knew before they realized that they were naked so they sewed together fig leaves and made clothes for themselves then the man and his wife heard the lord walking in the garden it was during the coolest time of the day they hid from the lord amongst the trees of the garden but the lord called out to the man where are you he said now i love that god asked the question that he already knew the answer to but in the midst of adam and eve's worsest point god is still going after them he still cares for us even at our worsest point hey where are you and isn't that something in which we always end up running away from god when we fall short but god is still coming after us because he loves us but the tree of knowledge doesn't allow us to see that and i want to point out some things that this this fruit um that the fruit is because the fruit is this just that knowledge it is not a fruit many times we think that the the fruit that adam and eve ate from was an apple or a pear or something like that but actually it is something in which they wanted it said when the woman see when eve saw that it was good to partake of then she consumed it and so often we see things that we want and we go after it knowing that it is contrary to what god told us from and that is the wrong knowledge or the wrong thought patterns or world views and the lord is telling us that when we take on these wrong world views then we end up separating ourselves from him because he cannot relate to us he doesn't get it he's like why are you thinking like that why are you thinking this way i i've given you a good world of world view this is my ways this and my these are my statutes if we want knowledge true knowledge then we need to go to the lord we shouldn't take on the world's point of view we should hear from his word from his lips that's why we read the bible because the bible is his word but when we get our information from something other than the world view then we end on taking we end up taking on um the worldly wisdoms which end up producing jealousy and selfishness um and and all kind of up evils but when we take on god's wisdom then we end up getting uh pure thoughts beginning of giving peace loving thoughts gentle at all times we end up being sacrificial um it's full of mercy and there's good deeds it's always sincere when you get god's point of view on things listen sometimes you don't need a good idea you need a god idea you need god's thoughts on what you're planning on doing and so the fruit is knowledge and we want god's knowledge now the second is this that the fruit is deadly when we take on the knowledge of this world it can produce death and the lord is trying to warn us of that that sometimes uh we end up not bringing on a physical death but a spiritual death and a spiritual death is almost as worse as a physical death because there's times when you could be walking around spiritually dead empty on the inside because you are separated from god's will and here it is it brings that sort of death where there's not life coming from the inside of you and god doesn't want that for us now the other is the that the fruit is consumed now eve consumed and then she gave it to her husband who was with her oh yeah fellas you're part of this thing too you were watching he was watching that and he was watching his wife as she consumed he consumed also so the question is what are you consuming are you consuming the things of the world are you consuming the things of god because it says that when the woman was convinced something happened there when she was convinced and she saw that the tree was beautiful and it looked delicious she wanted the wisdom that it gave her and she took some of the fruit and ate it and then she gave some to her husband who was with her and i'm here to tell you that the fruit is consumed and when you start consuming things of the world then you can end up passing it along to other people just like eve did and and oftentimes we want to know she said that that eve just wanted to know that wisdom and so she consumed of it she partake and partook of it she took it because she wanted to know so badly but i'm here to tell you sometimes you don't need to know you just need to trust and you don't need to know what god is doing in every single moment in your life you just have to be able to trust him we have to be able to trust that he has a good plan for us and that we don't have to know how everything is going to work out and so when we consume we consume from god with a place of trust and the last is this that the fruit causes separation it's it says that the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the lord amongst the trees of the garden remember the man hid from god it wasn't god that he had from man god never hides from us he's always there he's always waiting for us to come after him the bible declares that if you come after me i will come after you and so god is always wanting to approach us we don't have to hide when we make mistakes and we will make mistakes in this walk but i'm here to tell you that god is always willing to forgive he's always willing to meet you just at the place of the point of where you fell hey a good man is never down he's always either up or getting up and so i want to encourage you to continue to keep getting up and going after god and don't allow separation to take place but i will tell you that when when you do mess up there is a tendency to carry shame or be a victim and that's what the enemy would love to have you at it's in the mindset of carrying shame and being victimized and when when we have that mindset uh then we end up looking like or back being like adam and it says that in genesis 3 10 and 13 it says adam replied i heard you walking in the garden so i hid i was afraid because i was naked who told you you were naked the lord asked have you eaten from the tree whose fruit i commanded you not to eat the man replied it was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit and i ate it the lord asked the woman who what have you done the serpent deceived me she replied that's why i ate it if you notice here there's blame upon blame upon blame adam had the nerve not only to blame eve his wife but then he goes on and blames god the woman you gave me can you believe that he blames god for what his shortcomings were and here it is his wife eve ends up blaming the serpent but they both uh made the decisions on their own to disobey god and as a result they were walking in shame and look these are the results of walking in shame that there's a covering up of religion um and you end up becoming focused on works because you're trying to hide something oftentimes there's false pride there's uh deception there's also making of promises that you can't keep i'll never do it again god but really we need to be able to come to god with all of our hurts habits and hang-ups and say this is me o lord this is me help me help me where i'm at and god will honor that god sees you he humble he sees a humble heart and he is quick to help us get back up and to move forward in life now the other result is victimization victimization notices other people's sins and not our own and here it is adam noticed where his wife messed up but he didn't notice where he messed up and now you have eve who noticed the serpent but she didn't see where she had a shortcoming and so victimization ends up seeing other people's sins but not seeing our own it also makes excuses like uh i've just always been this way i'll never change i'm just not good enough and so as a result we end up staying in a place of brokenness instead of living in a place of freedom last but not least it'll make us feel rejected and if you're feeling rejected right now i'm here to tell you that your lord your your heavenly father that he truly cares for you that he has never left you nor forsaking you and that you had always come back to him now your life group leader is going to go over a few questions with you and before they do that i just want to pray with you because i truly believe that the holy spirit is going gonna move through your group right now heavenly father we just come before you right now we ask right now lord god that your precious holy spirit now is in this in the midst of these groups i just ask right now that you uh bring healing now for everyone that feels rejected for those that are feeling in shame lord god i just ask right now that if those are walking in religion or walking under the law that you break that chain lord god allow them to walk in a relationship with you swing them from the tree of knowledge to the tree of life in jesus name we pray amen hey i hope you enjoyed this have a great week you

Channel: TwinRivers.Church

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Keywords: freedom, lifegroups, life group, small group, small group curriculum, twin rivers church, christian foundations, freedom curriculum

Id: b3AIUNy-EQY

Length: 13min 50sec (830 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 03 2021