October 3, 2021 - The Devil Didn't Make Me Do It // Genesis 3

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] my [Music] [Music] do [Music] welcome to summit online if this is your first time joining us i want to first say that we're really glad that you're here the best way to connect to our church is by texting the word welcome to 33933 but i also want to let you know what we're all about here at the summit church following the holy spirit we exist to create a movement of disciple making disciples in rdu and around the world so whether you're in thailand canada or right here in north carolina we believe god is using you to live on mission as a disciple maker right where you are and actually kelsey did you know that summit an espanol was birthed exactly 12 years ago this month out of this same mission to make disciples in the spanish-speaking community we have the summit espanola campus now because a group of people were willing to say yes to the mission of god amen it's because of your obedience to the lord and faithful generosity that we continue to expand our gospel reach in spanish mandarin and even farsi so if you'd like to partner with us financially you can text give to 33933 or visit summitchurch.com and our church isn't just made up of obedient and generous disciples they're servant-hearted too and we know you're not just sitting on the sidelines but you're willing to let your light shine before men so that they will see your good works and glorify our father in heaven if you're local and you're looking for a tangible way to serve we're hosting serve weekend october 8th through 10th and you can visit summitchurch.com to find opportunities to serve near you okay so obedient generous servants but i know you all are also worshipers amen so let's jump in and worship our everlasting god today turn up that volume and don't be afraid to sing out loud our god is worthy let's sing [Music] welcome summit church let's worship the lord together the lord is my light in salvation whom shall i feel and shall i be afraid the lord is my light in salvation whom shall i feel yeah whom shall i be afraid [Music] i will trust you at all times and trust i will trust in you [Music] sing the lord is the lord it's my life in salvation who shall i fear who shall be afraid the lord is the lord my life is [Music] [Music] i will trust you [Music] i will remain confident in this i will see the goodness of the lord oh yes i will i will remain comforting in this i will see the goodness of the lord come on sing the lord [Music] [Music] shall is be afraid i will wait on you yeah i will wait on you [Music] i [Music] in this i will see the goodness of the lord we're confident in this lord i will remain confident in this i will see the goodness of the lord [Music] come on church we ought to declare the hope that we have in jesus name we set our hope on you we set our hope on your love say who is the everlasting [Music] who is [Music] we set our hope on the one who [Music] the is i will remain confident in this i will see the goodness of the lord so we're singing in faith i will remain confident in this i will see the goodness of the lord amen summit church aren't you thankful for the goodness for the love the grace the kindness and the faithfulness of the lord one of the most encouraging thoughts that i know how to think is just this that our god is faithful our god is faithful we know his he never fails his promises never fail his word never returns void he always accomplishes exactly what he wants to accomplish and that's good news because when when he says that he's with you then he's with you and when he says that he's for you he is for you when it says in his word that all things work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purposes they do they do work together for the good and so we want to be thankful for the faithfulness of our god we're going to keep singing here in in just a second but you can know this as we sing that no matter where you are no matter what you're facing in every in every in every joy in every uh failure in every success and every victory and every disappointment and sadness you can know this that our god is being faithful to you and so we can celebrate this good news right so we're going to keep singing here in just a minute but before we do that i want to invite you right where you are just close your eyes bow your head and pray and just say god thank you for your faithfulness to me and just remember all of the ways that god has been faithful to you you pray now we'll keep singing in just a minute [Music] so [Music] the father of kindness you abort how grace you brought me from the darkness you have filled me with peace and give her a mercy your my help in time of me and lord i can't help but it sings faithful or faithful you are faithful forever you will be faithful you are all your promises and all your promises are yes and amen sing it again and all your promises are yes and amen [Music] beautiful savior you have brought me near you pulled me from the ashes you have broken every curse oh blessed redeemer you [Music] [Music] faithful you are faithful forever you will be faithful [Music] and all your promises are yes [Music] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] and there's good news that we don't have to work for it we can't do anything to deliver god is just with us he's for us our confidence is in him come on listen and i will rest in your promises my confidence [Music] is in your faithfulness and i will rest in your promises my confidence solid enough is in your faithful i will rest in doubt in your promises [Music] is my [Music] [Applause] [Music] know your promises [Applause] faithful and foreign [Music] all your promises are just [Music] summit church genesis chapter 3 if you have your bible genesis is the first book in the bible so hopefully not too hard to find if you open your bible and the first book you have is matthew then congratulations you have a new testament only uh but don't fret we will put it on the screen um i know many of you uh your campus pastor probably just sat you at your campus but can i ask you to stand back up can you stand in honor of the reading of the word of god um genesis chapter 3 uh honestly this is one of the most important chapters in the entire bible because without it the bible doesn't make much sense the storyline of the entire bible uh human history doesn't make much sense without genesis chapter three and not to be too dramatic but honestly um our lives don't make much sense if we don't truly understand genesis chapter 3. and so genesis chapter 3 we're going to be going through the first seven verses this weekend we begin in verse 1. the word of god says now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the lord god had 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 verse six 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 one 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 you know last week pastor jd showed us what unrepentant sin does to the local church what we do with unrepentant sin in the local church and so this week i thought what we could do is actually take a step back this was actually mostly one of the messages i preached at summer camp to our students but after hearing pastor jd's message last week i just thought this weekend we could take a step back and look at what sin actually is and not just what sin is but what our enemy satan what his strategies are in order to try to entice us to sin when we do sin what are the consequences of that and then ultimately i want to show you how sin can be overcome and so pray with me god i thank you for your word i thank you that it's useful god i thank you this weekend um god i pray that you would be with my tongue that you'd be with my words that you would um convict hearts in a way that only you can god we know your word is a two-edged sword and when you cut you cut um not like a thief but you cut like a surgeon let's go so god as we tackle a hard topic this topic of sin god would you be with me would you be with us would we hear it with open ears with the holy spirit do incredible work on our hearts god we pray we ask in jesus name amen and amen y'all can be seated i want you to imagine with me that you are going on a journey that somebody approaches you and tells you uh they actually don't give you the option they say hey you are going to have to go on this journey from point a to point b and the person that tells you this that they also let you know they say hey and along this journey there's going to be all sorts of obstacles all sorts of danger so on this journey that you are forced to go on there's going to be there's going to be pitfalls there's going to be quicksand there's going to be land mines there's going to be explosives there's going to be all these things on this journey now let's say right before you decide to embark on this journey that same person that told you you have to go on the journey they hand you a map and they say hey brother i want to i want to help you out here's this map and on this map is located the exact location of all those dangers the locations of the quicksand and the explosives and all the things and so my question to you is if you had that map and you were headed on this journey what would you do with that map how are you going to treat this map you might already see where i'm going with this right i mean that map are you just going to crumble it up and throw it away are you gonna fold it up put it in your pocket maybe maybe pull it out once a week for an hour at a place called church look at it maybe give it five minutes every morning before you head out on your day see the reality is we are all on this journey called life whether you like it or not the day you were born you were put on this path on this journey called life and in this journey called life there's all sorts of dangers and god has given us a map god has given us his word to help us be able to locate where a lot of the dangers in the world are it's designed to reveal the pitfalls on this journey and what you think about this map how you utilize this book what you believe from this thing is going to determine largely how well you do on this journey and genesis chapter 3 if i could submit to you is in a lot of ways a key to this map because genesis chapter 3 is satan's strategy to entice you to sin which subsequently brings about sins consequences into your life maya angelou famously said you can't really know where you're going until you know where you've been and so we've been talking a lot about the church at corinth for weeks now right we've been seeing how jacked up they were and on one hand it's really easy to sit here in 2021 especially after last weekend where a man sleeping with his mom all this crazy stuff and to really judge their debauchery and immorality right until we turn the news on and then we see our own insanity we see our own injustice we see our own strife in the world in fact we are swiftly approaching in our corinthian series first corinthians chapter 10 verse 12 where paul says to anyone who thinks they stand take heed lest he fall john owen a favorite famous puritan um this is one of my wife's babe this is one of your favorite quotes john owen says the seed of every sin is in every heart and so today i want us to take heed lest we fall church because the seed of every one of those acts of sin exists in every one of our hearts and it has been that way since genesis chapter 3. see the first two chapters of the bible we what we see in chapter one we see god created everything and he created everything good yeah and then in chapter two we see that he created man and he created us to live in his presence we were created to be in relationship with god we were created to love god to walk with god to worship god to know god to enjoy god to live with god in his presence genesis 2 gives us the way things were supposed to be before sin so look back at genesis chapter 2 look at verse 15. it says the lord god took the man this is before sin has entered the world the lord god took the man and put him in the garden of eden to work it and to keep it notice work came in the world before sin did work is part of our dignity and the lord god commanded the man saying you may surely eat of every tree in the garden but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat from the day that you eat of it you shall surely die then we get to genesis chapter 3. this is what us church folks refer to as the fall this is the point in which our relationship with god's presence gets broken because of our sin just by show of hand how many of y'all have ever broken a bone before broken any kind of bone ever you know when you when you break a bone daniel simmons one of our executive pastors broke his ankle a few weeks ago let's say you've probably realized this if you've broken something if you break let's say like your right ankle it's really weird because your right ankle is what's broken but then what ends up hurting over time it's like your left hip right because you're like over compensating on stuff and and then not only that but that break actually affects everything else in your life it affects your daily routine it affects those around you wendy simmons could have tested this she's serving daniel hand and foot no pun intended that's what's going on because a fracture in one place affects all sorts of other areas and so in the same way what sin did to our presence with god is that it caused a fracture in our relationship with him our sin removed us from god's presence and that removal that break now affects every single aspect of our lives again there's a reason this journey called life is so hard at times it's because of sin it's because of this right here what adam and eve triggered in the garden did not just begin a legacy of people choosing to sin it also began a legacy of people suffering and being hurt by other sin and so what i want to do i want to go back let's go back through this and look at where we've been let's look at where we came from so that we can know where we were going and walk this journey together okay we're going to kind of reverse sear this sermon if that's all right with y'all genesis chapter 3 look back at verse 1. it says now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the lord god had made a serpent said to the woman did god actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden let's pause right there first off can we just go ahead and make a pact here at the summit church that if a snake ever starts talking to us that we're not going to engage can we do that in fact right now at all of our campuses will you repeat after me say i promise i will not play with snakes i will not talk to them i will not engage with them i will not listen to them in jesus name amen all right we good i i feel like our alamance campus is like nope i'm talking to that sucker you kidding me like that's what's going on over there all right second back to attack second this snake the book of revelation tells us that this snake is satan and it says right there in verse 1 that he's crafty that he's actually more crafty than any other beast of the field that the lord god had made so satan's crafty he has these sneaky schemes he has these tactics that he uses as he plans his attacks and the reason we need to know this is because this is the only way we'll ever see the landmines and pitfalls that he attempts to use in his attacks on our lives so if you think about it like this it's um it's college football season the greatest season of the entire year um i am a florida state fan so this year college football is not the greatest season of the entire year but that is neither here nor there um if you were to ask somebody let's say you might have somebody at your campus that plays on one of our local college teams if you were to ask them say hey aside from practice in school this week what have you spent your time doing most likely you're going to get two words back you know what those two words are game film okay the point is they go watch game film to study and to know their opponent in order to defeat their opponent the reality is satan has game film on us satan has game film on our lives see we come to church and it's supposed to be exciting and smiley and happy right but the reality is that christianity is not a playground christianity is a spiritual battleground satan is studying your moves he knows your plays and so we'd better be studying his according to the scriptures because honestly he's smarter than we are that's not a cut down but he's just been around longer than we have he has more experience than we do he understands us better than we understand ourselves therefore he knows what to entice us with and what to put in front of us in order to get us to try to stray from god and he's crafty which means he does this in subtle ways what that means is that the sin that he often entices us with is usually not some huge obvious thing that he places in front of you it's not like you wake up every morning and satan has like plopped drugs in front of you is like my double dog dare you like that's not usually what's happening he's subtle and there's a common phrase that almost all of his tactics begin with and you need to know this phrase again so that you can be ready to defend against it here it is satan says this right here in verse one if you are into underlining or highlighting your bible i suggest you do that right here in verse 1 satan says did god actually say did god actually say notice he doesn't deny that god has spoken he just questions what he's spoken he says do you do you really believe that god expects you to obey the entire bible i mean that thing's big that's a lot i mean god god didn't really mean what he said in there at least not for you not for now we've evolved way past that that thing was written hundreds if not thousands of years ago you can't live according to god's restrictive rules i mean we've grown past that if god really loves you he'll let you do whatever he wants yeah did god actually say to us here at this time did god actually say you can't watch that show i mean it's just a show who cares what content is in it did god actually say to forgive everyone at all times i mean clearly god doesn't know what that person did to you or said about you because if he did he would understand what you hate why you hate them and have so much bitterness toward them did god really say that it's not okay to push the boundaries with your girlfriend or boyfriend i mean you guys love each other and you're committed to one another you're not actually going all the way so what's the big deal this is another reason i cannot stress enough the importance of knowing god's word for yourself of learning how to read the bible for yourself to know exactly what god actually said in this word not not what satan says not what your friends say not what you see on social media not what some cool pastor or pop star is saying about jesus not even what i say you should have this thing open measuring what i say according to this this is the standard you have to know what god said in his word for yourself notice that god never said you can't eat from any of the trees what did he say look back at it genesis 2 16-17 he says you are free to eat from any tree in the garden you just don't eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil now see this is a subtle difference but it's one that makes all the difference god actually said you're free to eat from any of the trees except for that one and then satan comes along and he questions it and he says hey you can't eat from any of the trees did god really say that and the sad part is i think so many of us are still stuck in this twisted kind of genesis 3 theology when it comes to christianity we listen to satan in this regard because we think that christianity is just a giant list of do's and don'ts we think that god is restrictive while the world actually gets to have all the fun this is this is what i used to think it's one of the things that made it so hard for me to come to jesus because i had all the same friends for about 15 20 years they were my boys they were the guys i grew up going to school playing ball with they were my drinking buddies doing all these things and one of the hardest parts in thinking about giving my life to jesus and the hardest things that all i could think about was the giant list of things that i was not going to be able to do what about partying with my friends what about tailgates what about sleeping around what about the lifestyle that i was used to that i enjoyed and if i come to jesus i'm going to have to give all that up and what happened is i was viewing god as someone who only wanted to take things away from me and that's so far from the truth from the opening pages of scripture one of the things that the bible's so clear about is that god is good and actually not only is he good but he basically has one rule he's like adam and eve have a good time the whole garden is yours just don't eat from that one tree and kill yourselves that's pretty much it y'all god is a good father who wants to give not take away chapters one in chapters two god is creating he's designing he's manufacturing this beautiful world and he places adam and eve inside of it and he gives adam dignity by giving him work by having him cultivate the land and the animals he's in adam's presence giving him purpose and relationship what we should read there is god is more generous than like a grandparent with their first grandchild that god takes us to the store and lets us pick out not one not two but three toys and then he pays for it this is the god we serve which is why when we talk about generosity at this church it's because we have come to understand how generous god has been with us see what great love the father has what lavished upon us that we should be called children of god you think god wants to take away from you our inheritance is in heaven our eternity is going to be spent on streets of gold he is the god who is over the cattle of a thousand hills the joy and the confidence and the freedom we find in christ cannot be matched by anything found in this world some of our god wants to give not take away so have a good time the whole garden is yours just don't eat from this one tree but then satan slithers in to cast doubt on what god has spoken and he says did god really say you can't eat from any of the trees and then look what happens with eve's response look at verse 2 and the woman said to the serpent we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden now what does she leave out from chapter 2 again one of my jobs to help you read the bible what does she leave out god had told them that they could surely eat of every tree so here she is she's already subtracting from god's word then she continues look at verse three but god said you shall not eat of any of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden here it is neither shall you touch it did god say that no did god say that class no good job lest you die now she's adding to god's word so first she subtracts something good god's generosity and then she adds something restrictive making god seem capriciously prohibitive and how did this happen because she chose to go with what someone else said over what god had said this is a life principle i've told you this before i can't drill it in your heads enough whenever what you see or whenever what someone else says does not match up with what god has said in his word always go with what god said when what you see or what you feel doesn't match up with what god has said in his word always go with what he said and so if god says we are to flee from any hint of sexual immorality even though our culture says love is love do you do whatever you want you need to go with what god said maybe you don't feel forgiven because of something you've done but god says in christ you are forgiven go with what he said maybe you feel alone or abandoned or forsaken or like you're not going to make it this weekend you need to remember that god has said that he will never leave you nor forsake you and he died to make you his own that's what his word says and you need to go with what he said when what you see doesn't match up with what god has said church i pray that we will be a church that always goes with what god has said look at verse 4. it says but then the serpent replied to the woman and said you'll not surely die if you eat from that tree for god knows that when you eat of it your eyes are going to be opened and you'll be like god knowing good and evil all right this is crucial because at this point they have a choice to make at the end of the day you boil it down here's the choice are they going to believe god or are they going to believe satan that's the choice we get so hung up on the fruit thinking it's about the fruit it's not about the fruit see the fruit is just an opportunity for them to demonstrate their faith or their unbelief to demonstrate who their belief is truly in that's it the root of the issue is whether they're going to trust god or not whether they believe god is good or not whether they are going to rely on god's word or not it's not about the fruit it's about their faith because here's satan saying to them and the same thing he says to us today he says god's lied to you god's withholding something good from you if god really loved you then he'd let you have that thing and what it does it makes us think again that god is restrictive that god is keeping something good from us so one of the things we have to defend against when we read the bible when we listen to sermons whatever we have to defend against when we read stuff like hey we shouldn't watch that don't listen to that don't get drunk don't lie don't mess around don't steal don't lust the things the good things the good restrictions that god has put in his word we have to fight against the voice of satan creeping slithering into our hearts saying god's a liar because those things are great nothing's going to happen to you if you do those things in fact the only thing that's going to happen is you're going to enjoy yourself what god is doing god's withholding pleasure and joy from you you can't trust or believe god god's not for you god's just holding you back see every day we're faced with the exact same decision as adam and eve in genesis chapter 3. we think if we were in their place we would have made a better decision come on y'all every single day we're faced with the same decision are we going to believe god or are we going to believe satan am i going to demonstrate faith with this decision or am i going to demonstrate unbelief because see there's no gray line here so when we do something you know we've come up with these things to try to rationalize our sin we say like well i was just stretching the truth like i don't know i'm sure i may have stretched the truth or slandered the competition in order to close that deal but the reality is god calls us to always tell the truth and so your stretching of the truth is not just a stretching of the truth your stretching of the truth is something and it's called sin and it is a big deal and in that moment where you have stretched the truth you are believing satan and sure he may have enticed you with the sin but you're the one who committed it students when you disobey your parents even in the the mundane things things that might seem small when you disobey your parents even though god has told you to honor them it is a big deal it's a big enough deal that it's called sin the very thing that put jesus on the cross and broke our relationship with god and in that moment that you disobey your parents you are believing satan when you gossip about one of your friends and then make it even worse by lying about it you're believing satan and one of the things we need to notice is that satan is not the one causing us to sin sure he he tempts he he does that he puts all the the explosives and the land mines in place but we're the ones who willingly walk over them so don't be blaming the devil for your disobedience i don't know if you caught it it's actually the title of my sermon the title of my sermon was the devil didn't make me do it did it on my own every moment of every day the question is am i going to believe god or am i going to believe the snake now we all know what eve chose right look at verse 6. so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes y'all sin can look good i promise you and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise she took of its fruit and ate and she also gave some to her husband who was where with her doing what nothing tony evans one of my favorite bible teachers has a whole sermon called where you at boy i'm telling you i could preach a whole sermon on the crisis that is manhood in our day where's adam he's with her doing nothing and he eats two verse seven then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths maybe you've heard this before but why did they go running looking for clothes to cover their nakedness actually learn this here from pastor jd because before sin entered the world they were covered and clothed in god's acceptance they didn't need clothes because there was nothing to be ashamed of there was nothing to hide from but now they've sinned sin has entered into the world they've broken their relationship with god they recognize that they're naked they're ashamed they're afraid and the rest of human history from this point forward is all about covering our shame with fig leaves that's all it is it's anything we can find to hide ourselves so that people can't truly see who we are so our social media pages our clothes our brand names our bank accounts our grades all all of them are just fig leaves to try to leave the impression that everything is perfectly good and fine in our lives and i grew up in georgia and let me tell you i consider north carolina for the most part still the south and for the for a lot of people in the south the the biggest fig leaf that i know down here is religion it's playing the church game i mean man in the south we carry all bibles we quote the verses we sing the songs we go to church we listen to the country music awards or we make sure there's a nice little hymn tucked in there we have a verse on our social media profiles all in hopes that nobody ever really looks and sees what's going on inside of our hearts nobody can ever really see what we're doing or who we really are or where we're really at in our relationship with god and so we do the right church things because it's the way that we hide from our sin ever being revealed how you doing pastor john i'm great brother how are you doing praise god sounds like a normal sunday morning donut church is our fig leaf in the south we don't want to get caught we don't want to get found out we don't want to be known we don't want to be exposed you know this is the first thing we all do after sinning we attempt to cover our own shame and then we just like adam and eve separate ourselves from god and from one another so that's the first very quick thing i want us to see out of this the consequences of sin the first consequence is that sin separates us from god's presence sin separates us from god's presence look at verse eight this is where i find this it says 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 who had previously been walking in relationship with god hid themselves from the presence of the lord among the trees of the garden up until this point they're walking they're talking they're carrying along with god but one sin one sin that's all it takes and they're relationally separated from him the relationship's fractured it's right there in verse nine look they're trying to hide but the lord god called to the man and said to him where are you how many of you um how many of you have ever played hide and seek with a toddler maybe you've got a kid maybe you had a younger sibling growing up you know what i'm talking about you know you tell them like you go hide all counts you count to ten you say ready or not here i come and what do you do you go in and you're like where are you and you can like hear them giggling or you see their feet popping out or even some kids who are super cute they're like here i am or uh even better uh bruiners you know they're like here am i you know they do that kind of thing right and so you know exactly where they're at they're not hiding from you but you're like i can't find you and that's what's going on like this is what adam thinks he's doing with god the omniscient all-knowing all-seeing sovereign god of the universe and adam runs off in his nakedness like he just got out of the shower as a toddler and he's like oh i'll hide behind this tree god will never find me here the point is this write this down this is worth the price of admission this weekend when we sin you listen when we sin we get dumb that's the point when we sin we get dumb this is when you think you can hide your sin not just from others but you think you can hide it from god you think you can delete your browser history and nobody will ever know you think you can dm or text that person that is not your spouse and nobody will ever find out you think you can spend all day scrolling through social media fantasizing about and coveting that other person's life and that nobody will ever know and listen the reality is maybe other people will never find out but what is true according to the bible is that god knows god sees god's the one we sin against y'all think god has a computer come on you ever seen bruce almighty god's got a computer okay see we do these really dumb things we we hide our sin we cover ourselves in fig leaves and we think well as long as nobody ever finds out it doesn't count as long as i don't get caught i mean god doesn't know god knows god knows everything he knows your heart he knows your mind he knows your imagination if that doesn't scare you i don't know what will that god knows every single thought you've ever had whether you have vocalized it or not he knows everything and as we saw last week if we are living in unrepentant unconfessed sin then we will remain separated from the presence of god it's what happened in genesis 3 look at verse 24. adam and eve try to run and hide instead of just owning it they say and it says god drove out the man and at the east of the garden of eden he placed the cherubims just this angel and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life see the severity of our separation from the garden in genesis chapter 3 was far more than simply a separation from a place the severity of sin is a separation from a person it's separation from god's presence which we were created to live in which is why if you've ever felt far from home if you've ever felt hurt if you've ever felt alone if you've ever felt betrayed or misunderstood or like the root or the meaning of life was somewhere someplace hidden hundreds of miles away here's the reason for that the explanation for that is genesis chapter 3 verse 24. it's the fact that you and i were not made to wander outside of eden in god's presence you and i were not created to be this far from god we were not created to live life on our own apart from god and deep in your heart i know we've we've all felt this at times we've all felt homesick in this world we've all felt like this is not the way things are supposed to be i know this is bad news the bad news is that our sin has fractured our relationship with god in such a way that there is nothing you and i can do to repair it but there's also good news in this longing the good news is that that longing is a clue that things really are supposed to be different and then the even better news is that god has promised to fix what sin has ruined god has promised to restore us and god has crossed the barriers between heaven and earth to make a way to repair what has been broken by our sin which is what separates us from god's presence which begs the question why do we continually choose to sin then i mean first off we sin because we're born sinners it's it's a it's a small distinction you need to know it we're not sinners because we sin we sin because we were born sinners and second we sin because deep down we believe that sin will provide us with something that we don't believe jesus can give us and that's the second quick thing i want us to see that sin promises what it cannot provide sin promises what it cannot provide i was trying to think of a way to illustrate this and i think everyone can relate to this because you've all gotten them just like me right you go to your mailbox you pull it out and there's some of that mail guess what congratulations you just got a five thousand dollar credit limit increase you got these yeah you are now a platinum card member you know i'm talking like pl that just everybody wants to be platinum right that makes you feel good huh you're you're a preferred member until you need to call them and then they you're not so preferred anymore some of you are platinum preferred right you get this credit increase and it makes you feel good it makes you feel worthy to have this higher credit limit but but you know i like i know you know this there's something behind all that we most of us know because at some point we've probably paid the consequences your credit may have increased but your salary did not increase even though your spending along with that increased credit increased and so some of you know what it's like to pay minimum amount year after year all because they made you feel good by saying congratulations something has increased they enticed you with this credit card they they called you this is exactly what sin does i've heard it said that sin will take you farther than you ever want to go will keep you longer than you ever want to stay and cost you far more than you ever want to pay paul david tripp and his great devotional new morning mercy says it better than i ever could he said the grand delusion of every act of sin is that we think we can choose sin over god and that everything is going to work out in the end see every one of us has fallen prey to this delusion in one way or another and usually sounds like something like this it usually says well i know i did that but it's not that big of a deal i mean everybody's doing it right it can't be that bad i didn't have much of a choice what else was i supposed to do i mean i'm only gonna do it this once anyways i mean it's not really clearly forbidden in the bible tell me chapter and verse what was i supposed to do ah it don't matter god's good anyways he'll forgive me it's not like i do it all the time anyways it's just occasionally i mean god wants me to be happy when it's all said and done right we internalize these things we vocalize these things in order to try to justify our sin but y'all we cannot call sin other anything other than what it is we can't rebrand sin and call it something like a misstep or a mistake i saw the other day i'm not kidding with this i saw on the news where australia is trying to rebrand shark attacks by calling them negative encounters to try to help tourism it's it's not a negative encounter when you get your leg bitten off right it makes me want like did a shark come up with this pr scheme i i just really don't know and so yes you can try to justify or rationalize your sin by calling it a misstep as long as you know that that misstep is going to cost you your life for all of eternity you can call it a mistake if you want if that tries to make you feel better as long as you know that your mistake is what put jesus on the cross and i know by this point you're probably like dude i get it like sin is bad chill out there is nobody who would prefer more than me to get up here and to preach to you the happy side of christianity there's nobody who would enjoy more than to get up and talk about the love and the joy and the peace that you find in jesus and to skip straight to the good news to get up and tell jokes and try to be funny i mean everybody loves a funny preacher right but the reality is there's nothing funny about our sin there's nothing funny about breaking your relationship from god and being cast from his presence for eternity there's nothing funny about jesus getting beaten and persecuted and whipped and flogged and nailed to a cross because of your sin there's nothing funny about remaining in your sins separated from god's presence and spending eternity in a fiery painful harsh dark lonely place called hell there's nothing funny about thinking that every time i sin and i still do that i might as well be picking up a hammer and nailing jesus to the cross myself the reason we chase pleasure and satisfaction and even salvation in other places is because we truly don't believe that god will fill those places in our hearts and our lives we don't truly believe that jesus can be more satisfying than the sin we are partaking in so it's not that our love for sin and earthly things is just so great that we can't give them up for jesus it's just that our love for jesus is so small in comparison sin is settling for anything less than what you and i were created for which was to live in the presence of god forever and to be satisfied in him for all eternity and so maybe this is where you're at today you've been chasing after these earthly things that can't satisfy relationships and approval and followers and finances and physical pleasures and whatever you're realizing that it all falls short here's the good news you've been waiting for there's one who has overcome sin and his name is jesus so yeah sin may have taken you farther than you wanted to go but jesus broke the barriers between heaven and earth and he came down to get you your sin might be have kept you longer than you wanted to stay it's okay jesus has come to rescue you your sin costs you more than you were ever willing to pay dear child know that jesus paid that penalty on the cross at calvary when he said it is finished and when we come to jesus he doesn't shame us for our sin he forgives us and accepts us and walks us back into the presence of god and so friend your sin is great his grace is greater our power to sin is no match for his power to save what you and i have broken because of our sin jesus has healed on the cross but we have to turn from our sin we have to confess our sin we have to confess our need for him as savior and believe that he has done everything necessary to bring us back in to the presence of god and when you do that you can be saved from eternal separation and condemnation romans 6 23 for the wages of sin is death a wage is what wages is something you earn what we have earned the wage we have earned because of our sin is death but the free gift free there's nothing you have to do to pay for it and it's a gift a gift is something you have to receive the free gift of god is eternal life life eternally in the presence of god and it is found wherein christ jesus our lord see we tend to read genesis chapter 3 and think that our solution back into this beauty and presence of god is a return back to eden but that's not it no god surprises us instead of bringing us back to the garden god he entered into our sin in our mess jesus walked the road out of eden to find us exiled and in the wilderness god met us in the hell that we had created for ourselves and then he suffered what we never could have imagined to bring us back church what kind of love is this who could imagine it what else can we do in response but say grace grace it is god's grace [Music] and you may be sitting there thinking oh pastor you just don't know what i've done if you knew what i had done you would know that god could never love or use somebody like me for i'm not qualified enough i'm not lovable enough i'm not worthy enough i'm guilty i'm lonely i'm broken i'm ashamed if you only knew my past if you knew the baggage that i bring with me god could never truly love or use someone like me if that's you i i want to i want to remind you this might seem crazy i want to remind you of that scene from lion king we've all seen it we're simba grown up simba has returned and he meets rafiki kind of the wise sage the monkey right and he tells rafiki says oh you knew my father and rafiki says garexa nainu i know your father you know and he takes them through the jungle and they race through and he says look down in that look down in that lake simba and you'll see your dad and symbol looks down and all he sees is his own reflection he sees his shame he sees his guilt he sees his own cowardness and he says i don't i don't i don't see anything and rafiki says look again look harder and he looks again and all of a sudden he starts seeing his father's reflection in the lake and rafiki says see look again look harder because your father lives in you and then the best part mufasa the greatest disney character of all time and i'll hear nothing else mufasa appears in the clouds and he says simba you are more than what you have become you must return you must go back and take your place as rightful king that you were created to be and simba starts crying and he says dad how could i ever go back how could i ever return with all this guilt and with this shame to go back to the very people i have abandoned what i've done they'll never accept me they'll never do that and you remember what he says he cuts off simba and he says you remember who you are for you are my son church if there were ever a message to those of you who feel broken to those of you who feel ashamed to those of you who feel guilty to those of you who feel stuck in your sin in jesus you need to hear god saying to you remember who you are you are god's child god is your father and any label of sin that satan wants to put on you you pull out this map called god's word and you remind him that god specializes in saving and then using broken people you remind him of adam and eve how they lied and concealed and accused and god went on to use them in mighty ways you remind them of abraham and sarah who were old and could never have a baby and yet god birthed the entire nation of israel through them you remind them that noah was a drunk that jacob was insecure that joseph was abused and sold into slavery that moses was a stutterer with a confidence problem and a murderer to boot you remind him that elijah was oppressed esther was an orphan and was abused gideon was poor and a coward david was an abuser and a murderer jonah was a rebellious racist john the baptist was just plain weird the samaritan woman had failed relationship after failed relationship and not a friend in the world thomas had doubts matthew was a thief martha was a warrior paul was a pharisee and a persecutor timothy was timid and if that's not enough for you let me remind you that lazarus was dead and god used every single one of them and so when satan wants to come at you even though he knows your name and tries to call you by your sin god knows your sin and yet he calls you by your name and you can go back to him and say that's not my name my name is redeemed i am forgiven i am adopted i am a child of god who has been chosen who is a new creation in christ who is accepted who is worthy who is never alone and so devil you want to call me by my sin that's perfectly fine you can add my name to the list of people you set out to destroy but that my god came to save and if you want to remind me of my past go ahead and do it satan that's fine let me remind you of your future because you may have bruised his heel but jesus came to crush your head there is one who has overcome sin there's one who has already won there's one who's gonna come back and claim his trophy called the church and so yes my sin broke the relationship with god but jesus came and was broken from my sin he took it on the cross he was buried in the grave he rose again three days later to prove that he has power and dominion over it and now because of him neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor heights nor depths nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of god in christ jesus our lord brandon that's good news so what sin is keeping you from god's presence today what are the things or what is the thing that satan is hanging over your head that you don't want anybody to know about that you would you just don't want to confess what are the things he tempts you with don't leave here in guilt and shame know that the blood of jesus has covered every single one of those things we don't walk through this journey of life and grieve as those who are without hope you are who god says you are [Music] i've got to believe there's somebody who needs to pray right now through their temptation and give it to jesus so would you pray with me god i thank you for your word i thank you that it cuts us in the deepest places of our hearts god but it cuts us to allow the light of christ to shine into our dark places and so god for the person that doesn't know you god but you've revealed their sin to them today you've reminded them that because of what they've done they are eternally separated from you and they're saying i don't want that i want to be back in the presence of god i want to be saved god i pray that that person would just repeat after me you can just pray a prayer it sounds something like this you can say god i know i'm a sinner but i also believe you're a savior and so god today i want to give you my sin and god i receive the free gift of eternal life that is found in christ jesus [Music] god thank you for saving me thank you for saving me i give you all the glory i'll give you all the honor and some at church can we give them all the praise amen amen [Applause] [Music] my gift of grace is jesus my redeemer there is no more for heaven now to give he is my joy my righteousness and freedom my steadfast love my deep and bound this peace to this tithe my hope is only jesus for my life is holy bound to hiss oh how strange and divine i can sing all is mighty yet i but through christ in [Music] the me is dark but i am not forsaken for by my side the savior he will stay i labor on in weakness and rejoicing for in my [Music] needs my shepherd will defend me through the deepest valley he will lead oh the night has been one and i shall overcome yet not i but through christ in me [Music] the future sure the price it has been paid for jesus bled and suffered for my pardon and he was raised to overthrow the grain to this show my sin has been defeated jesus now whenever [Music] within me with every breath i long to follow jesus for he has said that he will bring me home and day by day i know he will renew me until i stand in joy for the throne is is is is complete still my lips shall repeat yet not i but through christ in me yet not i but through christ in me yet not i but through christ in me oh you're you're victorious [Music] [Music] yet not i but through christ in me there is no way i can acknowledge my sin or even move away from my sin apart from the work of the holy spirit and as a family we'd love to go before the throne of grace with you if you'd like to pray with somebody before you go you can click request prayer and a live host will pray with you right now if you're not watching live take a moment to pray with those around you or email us at prayer at summitchurch.com yeah so please don't leave today without taking a moment to respond to the lord and as you go this week our prayer is that nothing nara absolutamente nada would keep you from experiencing the presence of god summit ustedes you are sent [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

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Length: 74min 23sec (4463 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 02 2021