All right, good morning, church family.
Let me invite you all to find your seat.
And as you find your seat, let me invite you to open to the
book of Genesis chapter 3. This morning.
We're going to be in Genesis 3, verses 16 to 24.
One thing I was going to just share real quick, I, I ran into
a former regular tender of our church on Friday and we were
talking, they, they had to move. And so they're out there at a
new church. They're at like a mega church
kind of. And he was telling me that one
of the things that he really missed about our church was the
worship, the the praise. And he said that the church that
they're currently at, it's, it's more of a kind of a concert
performance with fog machines and so forth.
And nothing necessarily against that, but he said he really
missed the genuine worship. And so just want to thank you
praise team for leading us and reminding us that our worship is
is not a performance, it's not a concert.
It is worship. It is an opportunity for us to
worship the Lord. So what what a what a testimony
it is to hear that from former tenders of our church and
members of our church who have have testified this morning.
We are continuing our study in the book of Genesis and we are
in Genesis 316 to 24. So let's read the text, open us
in a word of prayer and then we'll jump into the sermon this
morning. Genesis 3 beginning in verse 16
to the woman he said, I will surely multiply your pain and
childbearing in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over
you. And to Adam he said, because you
have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the
tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it.
Cursed is the ground because of you.
In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life, thorns
and thistles that shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat
the plants of the field by the sweat of your face.
You shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of
it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall
return. The man called his wife's name
Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of
skin and clothed them. Then the Lord God said, Behold,
the man has become like one of us, and knowing good and evil
now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of
life, and eat and live forever. Therefore the Lord God sent him
out from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he
was taken. He drove out the man, and at the
east of the Garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a
flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the Tree
of Life. Let's pray, Father, I pray this
morning that as we look at the the curse that you placed upon
this world, as we look at the punishment that not only Adam
and Eve suffered for their sin, but that we are still suffering
today and we still feel the consequences of our sin.
Lord, we feel the curse, we feel the effects that our sin has
upon this world, upon ourselves, upon our family and our our
friends. Lord, I pray that you would
remind us that sin, that there are consequences to sin, that
when we sin it, it is, it is not just, it's not a small matter
that it, it affects everything. And we see that in this world,
Lord, we see how broken this world is.
We long to be back in the garden.
We long to be in, in a better garden where Jesus Christ walks
among us. And so, Lord, would you help us
this morning to, to, to cultivate a longing for this
world to be renewed, to be made whole.
And one day we know that it will, that Jesus will come and
he will rule and reign one day and that the curse will be no
more. I pray this in Jesus name, Amen.
Have you ever received something in the mail that you had to put
together? You know, could be a coffee
table or it could be a bookshelf or vacuum cleaner or anything
that you know that had pieces and you needed to put this thing
together. And you ever begun putting this
item together and you realize that something was wrong.
You're not quite sure what is wrong, but something is
definitely wrong. You're maybe missing pieces.
And if you're missing pieces, no matter how much you may try to
put this thing together, it's not going to work properly.
It's not going to function the way that it is intended to
function because you are missing pieces.
This item is broken. It's flawed.
If we try to make sense of this world, we will quickly learn
that something is broken. We will quickly realize that
there's some missing pieces. In fact, everything is broken.
Every screw is bent, every nut is the wrong size.
We have been delivered a defective package and the reason
is because we are all under a curse.
We all feel the effects of this curse and it goes all the way
back to the garden. Sin has infected this world and
now we are trying to get back to the garden, trying to get back
to a place where things are not broken, where the infection of
sin does not infiltrate everything that we care about
and we love. We're waiting for the day when
God will restore this world back to its original state and there
will be a new heaven and a new earth.
But for now, we feel the effects of the curse.
We feel them everyday. This morning we're looking at a
text where God continues His punishment because of the man
and woman's sin. Let me give the context and I'll
give exposition and then I'll give us application.
Here's the context. The man and woman are enjoying a
beautiful garden that God had made for them.
But one day a creature, a serpent, comes to the woman.
This creature is the the craftiest creature that the Lord
God had made. And the serpent asked the woman
a question. He says, did God actually say
that you can't eat from any of these trees?
To which the woman replies, no, we can eat from all of them
except that one, for on the day that we eat of that one, we will
die. The serpent deceptively says.
You will not die. In fact, God knows that when you
eat of this tree, you will be like him.
You will know good and evil. The serpent's statement is
enough to plant a seed of discontentment in the woman's
heart. She reaches out, she grabs the
forbidden fruit, and she eats of it.
To make matters worse, she then gives some to her husband who
was with her, and he eats of it. Upon doing so, their eyes are
opened and they realize they are naked.
They hear the sound of the Lord walking in the garden one day
and they are afraid, so they hide themselves among the trees.
God calls out to Adam and his hiding and he says, Where are
you Adam? Adam says he's afraid because he
was naked so he hid himself when God asked him, have you eaten of
the tree that I told you not to eat from?
Instead of owning up to his sin, Adam deflects blame.
He has become a Sinner and his sin infects his responsibility.
He blames the woman, He blames God.
When God confronts the woman, she does the same.
She learns from her husband. She deflects blame to the
serpent, and as a result, God curses the serpent.
But God has not done with the man and the woman.
It was not just the serpent who was punished.
So will the man. So will the woman.
So will all of us. Let's start by looking at an
exposition of the text. We're going to look at it verse
by verse and then I'll give you application at the end.
Let's start in verse 16 to the woman.
He said, I will surely multiply your pain and childbearing in
pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over
you. God starts with the woman.
That's interesting because when God held them accountable, he
started with the man, then he went to the woman, then he went
to the serpent. And when he punishes them, he
reverses this order. He starts with the serpent, then
he goes to the woman, then he goes to the man.
He gives the woman 2 punishments.
Let's look at them #1 He says, I will surely multiply your pain
and childbearing in pain you shall bring forth children.
Now, we've all seen either in person or in movies or TV shows,
or we've heard stories of how painful childbearing is, or
maybe you have experienced it first hand.
Mothers out there, women screaming at the top of their
lungs. Childbearing, I imagine, is got
to be one of the most painful experiences a woman will ever
have. In fact, for centuries and
centuries, many women died giving birth to their children.
It's probably one of the leading causes of death for women.
All of it is a result of the fall.
This means that prior to the fall, it appears to me that
women would have had babies with maybe little to no pain, but now
they will feel their pain. That's the first punishment.
Here's the second one. Your desire shall be for your
husband, and he shall rule over you.
This is one of the most debated lines in the book of Genesis.
What does this mean? Your desire shall be for your
husband. Now, at first glance, that seems
like a good thing. Is it not a good thing for a
wife to desire her husband? How is that a punishment?
Given that it is a punishment, I don't think it means that it's
like a good desire. I think it means this.
Your desire shall be for your husband's authority.
Your desire will be to rule and to reign over your husband, but
he shall rule over you is what the text says.
The husband though, will attempt to dominate his wife.
So what we have here basically is that both parties in marriage
are going to attempt to rule over each other.
Prior to the fall, it appears that what we would have had in
marriage is sacrificial leadership and joyful
submission. After the fall, what we now have
is a power struggle. A power struggle that almost, I
will say almost every marriage has in some form of another.
There will now be a power struggle going on in every
marriage. Look at verse 17 to 19 A and to
Adam, he said, because you have listened to the voice of your
wife, and I've eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you
shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of
you in pain. You shall eat of it all the days
of your life, thorns and thistles that shall bring forth
for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field by the sweat
of your face. You shall eat bread.
After addressing the woman, God next addresses the man.
Look at the first line that God tells him.
This is pivotal. God says to Adam, because you
have listened to the voice of your wife.
Remember what Adam said when God confronted him?
God asked him, where are you? Did you eat of this tree?
Here's what Adam said. The woman whom you gave to be
with me, she gave me the fruit and I ate.
Adam is implying that it's not his fault because the woman gave
him the fruit. He's almost implying like, I
mean, I just, she just gave it to me and I just ate it.
I didn't, you know, I I don't know.
No. But God says no, no, no, no.
It is your fault. You listen to the voice of your
wife. You should have listened to my
voice, but you chose your wife's voice over mine.
As a result, you ate of the tree which I commanded you not to
eat. Because of this, God also
punishes the man. He gives them five statements of
punishment. Let's look at them individually.
A Cursed is the ground because of you.
For the second time, now God has cursed to something.
First he cursed the serpent. Now he has also cursed the
ground. B.
In pain, you shall eat of it all the days of your life.
There's our word pain again. God tells the woman, I will
surely multiply your pain and childbearing and pain.
You shall bring four children. And God tells the man in pain,
you shall eat of it all the days of your life prior to the fall.
It appears that God would have simply caused fruit trees to
just produce fruit. It would have just come and, and
we would just walk up and just take it and, and we'd have
plenty of food and, and no work needed.
But but now man will have to work and he will have to work
hard to get his food. The ground will now be his enemy
rather than his servant. See, Thorns and thistles it
shall bring forth for you. We have a church work day
scheduled in a few weeks, and I don't think we've sent an e-mail
out about it, but we are going to be having a church work day
in a few weeks and we are going to be quickly reminded of the
effects of the curse when we attempt to tackle those
BlackBerry thorns and thistles out front there.
Yes, we are going to clear all of them out and we will be
reminded quickly of the curse when we do so.
Dee, you shall eat of the plants of the field.
Now why is that a curse or why is that a punishment?
You shall eat of the plants of the field.
This is a foreshadowing of being driven from the garden.
In other words, God says that you will not just eat of the
fruit from the garden. You will now have to eat of the
plants of the field rather than the garden, which means God's
foreshadowing here. You will not be living in the
garden anymore. E.
By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread.
Getting food will no longer be a delight.
It will be a chore. It will be work.
It will require the sweat of our brow.
Ask any farmer if their job is tiring.
I imagine it is. Look at verse 19.
B Until you return to the ground, for out of it you were
taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
Up until this point it hasn't been clear what is going to
happen to the man and the woman at the end of their life.
Will they live forever? Is God's will for them to live
forever? Will they be swept up into
heaven like Elijah? What is going to happen at the
end of their life? But now God tells them their
fate. God says till you return to the
ground, for out of it you were taken.
If you remember when God made man, he made him from the dust
of the ground. And God says that dust that I
made you from, that's where you're going to return.
Essentially, God is telling Adam, you're going to die one
day. Death will now be introduced to
the world. Look at what God says, for you
are dust, and to dust you shall return.
This is quite an existential statement, isn't it?
You are dust, God reminds Adam. He reminds us who we truly are.
Apart from him. We are dust, no more, no less.
Look at verse 20. The man called his wife's name
Eve because she was the mother of all living.
Up until this point I have been referring to her as the woman
because we have not been given a name for her yet.
But finally we learned her name. Adam calls his wife Eve and just
it'd be strange if we named our wives like they didn't get their
own names. We just husbands decided what
our wife's name was. Adam names his wife just as a
reminder. Naming something signifies
authority over it. God has called Adam to be the
spiritual authority over his wife.
Why did he call her Eve? Texas?
Because she was the mother of all living.
You may have a note in your Bible there.
Eve sounds like the Hebrew for life giver.
It resembles the word for living in the Hebrew.
Now this is important because this is a hopeful note here.
Even though death has now been introduced to the world, God
just said you're all going to die.
Even though death has been introduced to the world, God
will continue to bring life. Notice the contrast there.
You will return to the dust. You're going to die.
But fear not, Eve will be the mother of all living.
I will continue to bring life from you.
Eve will give birth, reminding them that God has not forsaken
them, He has not given up on them.
God will continue to bring new life in this world through Eve.
Look at verse 21 and the Lord God made for Adam and for his
wife garments of skins and clothes them.
Now remember Adam and Eve are still naked.
All they have are these pitiful fig leaves that they've sewed
together for loincloths that I imagine are not very effective.
So God does for them what they cannot do for themselves.
God clothes them. God made for them garments of
skin. Now here's a question, if it's
God made garments of skin, does this mean that God had to kill
some animals to get this text doesn't say, but it is a fair
assumption if so. Unless God made these skins ex
nihilo, which he could do. But if so, it means that Adam
and Eve's sin has ushered in the death of the first animals.
The verse 22. Then the Lord God said, behold,
the man has become like one of us and knowing good and evil
now, lest he reach out his hand and take also the tree of life
and eat and live forever. Now if you remember what the
serpent said to the woman, he said God knows that when you eat
of this tree you will be like God knowing good and evil.
As I mentioned a few weeks back, what makes the serpent so crafty
is that he does not tell bold faced lies.
He tells half truths. Here's an example where he was
telling a measure of truth. God affirms that when they ate
of this tree they did become like God.
God said they have become like us.
They did no good and evil. And so God says, now let's reach
out his hand and also take and eat of the tree of life and live
forever. What is the tree of life?
Do you remember back in chapter 2, verse 9, God said that in the
midst of the garden there were two trees, the tree of
knowledge, good of evil, and the tree of life.
We are given every indication that the man and woman were
allowed to eat from the tree of life.
Remember God said you may eat from every tree except for one.
So we're given the indication that they had been eating from
the tree of life. It was only the tree of
knowledge of good and evil they didn't eat from.
But now that they have eaten from that tree, they are now
forbidden to eat from the tree of life.
The reason it appears to me that God doesn't want them to eat of
this tree anymore, because if they do, they will live forever.
But that is no longer God's will for them.
God says my will is no longer that you would live on this
earth forever. They are now going to die at the
appointed time. That is now God's will for them
to die at that point in time. Look at verse 23 to 24.
Therefore, the Lord God sent him out from the Garden of Eden to
work the ground from which he was taken.
He drove out the man, and at the east of the Garden of Eden he
placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every
way to guard the way to the tree of life.
This last punishment that the man and woman will experience,
they lose the garden. They had this beautiful garden
to enjoy and now they have lost it.
The Lord God sent him out of the garden to work the ground.
The text says that he drove out the man.
The Hebrew word therefore drive out.
It's a very forceful term in the Hebrew.
It could be translated, banished, or expelled.
God basically banished them from the garden.
He expelled them from the garden.
Not only did God drive them out, but he also produced a guardian.
Also placed a guardian to guard the garden.
At the east of the Garden of Eden, he placed a cherubim.
What's he's like? What's a cherubim?
A cherubim is a class of a winged supernatural beings which
serve God in several functions. In heaven, there will not only
be angels, there will be cherubim as well.
No idea what they look like, but they will be there.
This cherubim has a flaming sword that turned every way to
guard the way of the tree of life.
So the man and the woman, they have lost the garden, they have
lost the tree of life, and they have lost unbroken fellowship
with God. The effects of our sin are great
indeed. Stop there with exposition
application. I have 9 points of application
#1 Pain is a reminder of the effects of our sin.
Pain is a reminder of the effects of our sin.
Nobody likes pain. I mean, if if you do,
something's wrong with you. Nobody likes pain.
Pain is one of those universal aspects of life that we can all
agree on. We can all agree that we wish it
didn't exist. Headaches, migraines,
toothaches, pulled muscles, joint pain, back pain, neck
pain, sciatica, stomach aches, menstrual cramps, bruises,
sunburn, arthritis, ingrown toenails, sore throats, acid
reflux, and on and on. Nobody likes pain.
When sin entered this world, so did pain.
We see it twice in this passage. I will surely multiply your pain
and childbearing in pain. You shall eat of it all the days
of your life. Pain is a reminder of the
effects of our sin. It is a reminder that this world
is broken. It is a reminder that something
is wrong with this world. This, this world is not as it
should be. Two weeks ago I got the flu and
I was laid up in bed for an entire week.
I lost 18 lbs. I kept having one thought.
Why God, why? Why do we get sick?
We get sick because we are sick, CS Lewis writes.
God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our
conscience, but shouts in our pains.
It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world #2 Marriage struggles
are a reminder of the effects of our sin.
Marriage struggles are a reminder of the effects of our
sin. Marriage is wonderful, and it is
wonderfully difficult. Marriage is a lot like Disney
World. You are in the happiest place on
earth and yet it still requires an awful lot of patience.
When I do premarital counseling, I tell couples you are going to
have conflict more than you realize and the reason is
because the curse has affected our marriages.
God said your desire shall be for your husband and He shall
rule over you. There is now going to be a power
struggle in marriage. Growing up I after I became a
Christian, I, I said you know what, I want to marry a woman
that will not fight me. And for the most part I got 1.
But the power struggle is still there.
There is now going to be a power struggle in every marriage.
Who is going to get their way? Who is going to call the shots?
Who is going to wear the proverbial pants in the family?
I tell husbands, don't get offended if your wife doesn't
immediately submit to you. She struggles to submit to God.
I tell wives, don't get offended.
Your husband doesn't gently shepherd you.
The devil has told him the rod is far more effective than a
staff. Marriage.
Struggles are a reminder of the effects of our sin #3 the
physical, emotional and mental drain of our work is a reminder
of the effects of our sin. We learned a few weeks ago that
work is not a byproduct of the fall.
Right? If, if, if anybody is thinking
that I can't wait to get to heaven so I can get rid of this
deadbeat job, we will still be working in heaven.
Work is not a byproduct of the fall.
Prior to the fall, God placed the man in the garden to keep it
and work it. We are given the impression
though that the keeping of this garden was a delight, but once
sent out of the world, God increased the difficulty of work
and the pain associated with it. God says cursed is the ground
because of you thorns and thistles that shall bring forth
for you by the sweat of your face, you will eat bread.
Now I know that most of us do not work manual labor jobs.
All of us don't work for our food.
We just go to the store and buy what we want, but all of us have
experienced the physical, emotional and mental drain of
our work, Charles Spurgeon writes.
The curse of the fall has fallen on our very tools.
The pen will not always write, the tongue will not always
speak, and the brain will not always think.
How many of us have come home from work and we're just
mentally, emotionally, physically, or even spiritually
drained? Or perhaps we feel like the
author of Ecclesiastes? What's the point?
My work seems so meaningless, CS Lewis writes.
The fact that our work is often difficult and unrewarding is a
constant reminder that this world is not our final home.
The friction we feel in our labor is a mercy that prevents
us from being too satisfied with the present age.
Brothers and sisters, one day all work will be joyful work.
One day everything we do will be joyful.
Number four, death is a reminder of the effects of our sin.
Death is a reminder of the effects of our sin.
When Adam and Eve ate of the fruit, the serpent was partially
right. They didn't immediately die, but
he was also wrong. As a result of their sin, they
would now experience death. God says till you return to the
ground, implying one day you are going to die.
Just like pain, death is another consequence that we can all
agree on that we don't like. Death is emotionally painful
sometimes, maybe the most painful thing that we
experience. I was watching this documentary
this past week on Jerry West. He was a basketball player back
in the 60s and the 70s. He was in later became an NBA
executive. He passed away a few years back.
In the documentary he was sharing about his childhood and
how his dad was abusive growing up.
He said the only person that made him feel like he was worth
anything was his older brother David.
And Jerry grew up very close to his older brother.
But then one day his older brother David was shipped off to
Korea and he was killed in the Korean War.
His dad was a strange man. He he had the casket brought to
his house and it stayed in his house for like a month.
It was sobering and sad to listen to him describe the pain
that he felt losing his brother. He was the only person that made
him feel like he was worth anything and now he was dead.
Death is an enemy that we all have.
I have heard parents share about the pain they have felt losing a
child. They describe it as a whole that
runs right through the middle of you.
Husbands and wives losing their spouses, friends losing their
best friends, children losing their parents, brothers and
sisters losing their siblings. Nobody escapes the pain of this
consequence. Death is a reminder of the
effects of our sin. #5 Whose voice in your head are you
listening to? Whose voice in your head are you
listening to? Everybody has a hierarchy of
voices in their head that they listen to.
Could be ourselves, could be our parents, could be our friends,
could be our boss, could be our spouse, could be celebrities,
could be social media. Could be the spirit, could be
the flesh, could be the devil. Whose voice are you listening
to? Adam had the voice of God in his
head. God's voice said, You may surely
eat of every tree in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil you may not eat from.
From the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.
But on this particular day another voice supplanted the
voice of God, and it was the voice of his wife.
God said to Adam, because you have listened to the voice of
your wife. We don't know what she said to
her husband, but her voice became louder in his head than
God's. Everybody has a sound board in
their head. That sound board we have back
there with all those knobs. I have no idea what they do, but
everybody has a sound board in their head.
You have all kinds of knobs and controls and you can determine
which voice is going to be turned up and which is going to
be turned down. You have control over that.
Brothers and sisters, make sure the loudest voice in your head
is the voice of the spirit. Don't let any other voice take
his part. Number six, Nothing humbles
quite like a pile of dust. Nothing humbles quite like a
pile of dust. I find it fascinating how easily
man can boast. I think it is one of the most
fascinating aspects of humans, the fact that we can boast.
We are like a bunch of ants in an Ant colony, you know, sitting
there boasting of how great they are.
I'm sure that many of you saw that recently there was another
assassination attempt on the president's life.
One of the reporters afterward asked him, why do you think this
keeps happening to you? This was his answer.
Well, if you look at history, the most impactful presidents
have all been targeted. I hate to say it, but I'm
honored to be a part of that list.
It is fascinating how easily we can boast.
As humans, we are all guilty of this, even in just small ways.
Anytime that we do something well, we can think it's
attributed to our hard work. And yet nothing humbles quite
like a pile of dust. God says for you are dust.
That would be a good tattoo to get.
I don't agree with tattoos, but if you're going to get a tattoo,
that'd be a good one to get. For you are dust.
It would be a constant reminder that this is who I am apart from
God. A pile of dust.
I see people in the gym. We go to the I go to the gym
like six days a week. I see people in the gym working
out. It's so funny to me.
They're sitting there in front of the mirror admiring their
bodies. I love it.
I it's like one of the my favorite things is to watch
people to sit there and just go. No shame, no shame.
And I think to myself, as I watch them admire their bodies,
I think one day this body that you have spent so much time on
and so much money on is going to be a pile of dust.
Don't forget that church family #7 God covers our nakedness and
shame with something far more effective than fig leaves.
He covers our shame and naked as something far more effective
than fig leaves. When Adam and Eve realized they
were naked, they attempted to cover up their nakedness by
sewing together some fig leaves and making for themselves some
loincloths. It was a pitiful attempt to
cover their nakedness. Now, God could just leave them
like this. He could say, you know what,
y'all can just stay like that. You can walk around with these
fig leaves, but God and his mercy and his grace came to
them. The Lord God made for Adam and
his wife garments of skins and he clothed them.
This is such a metaphor for how we deal with our nakedness of
shame and how God deals with it when we feel shame.
When we feel guilt, we attempt to cover it up through busyness,
through medication, through sleep, through emotional
guardrails, through alcohol, through food, through work.
And all of these methods are pitiful attempts to deal with
our shame. But God gives us something far
more effective. He comes to us and he offers us
a robe. A robe that is dipped Crimson in
blood. It's a robe that he has made, He
has fashioned for you and he clothes us with it.
Brothers and sisters, you don't need multiple outfits.
Your wardrobe only needs 1. And it is a good one #8 Sin
drives us out from unbroken fellowship with God.
Prior to the fall, the man and the woman, they enjoy this
beautiful garden. The Lord would come, and he
would walk among them in the cool of the day.
We were given the impression that they had unbroken
fellowship with God. They enjoyed the presence of
God, and God enjoyed their presence.
But once sin entered the world, this fellowship was now broken.
They were driven from the garden.
They were banished from the garden.
They would still enjoy the presence of God, but they would
enjoy it now in a different way. There was no longer an unbroken
fellowship with God. This is what sin does.
We have all felt this when we sinned, have we not?
We feel distant from God. We know that God has not
forsaken us. We know that God is still for
us. But there is a distance, there
isn't there. We all feel it.
This is one of the motivations to not sin, that when we are
tempted to sin with our minds or our mouths or our hands or our
emotions, we think to ourself, I can be close to sin and distant
from God, or I can be close to God and distant from sin.
And I choose in this moment to walk in righteousness.
Why? I choose right now that I will
not send. Why?
Because I don't want to feel distant from God.
I don't want to feel distant from Him.
So I will not choose to do this #9 Last point.
The curse reminds us this is not our home, and it cultivates A
longing to go home. The curse reminds us this is not
our home, it cultivates A longing to go home.
One of the most perennial debated questions is the problem
of evil, isn't it? And never go a year without
hearing somebody ask this question about the problem of
evil. Why is there so much evil in
this world? If God is loving, if God is
good, if God is omnipotent, why is there so much evil in this
world? Just, I mean, just turn on the
news and you will immediately be reminded that something is very,
very wrong with this world. A few weeks ago, you I saw the
story. You may have seen it yourself
where this man in Louisiana killed 8 children, seven of his
own, killed seven of his own children and a nephew, and then
wounded two women as well. How do we explain this kind of
father kills seven of his children?
Something is very wrong with this world, and it's because
we're under a curse. The curse has infected
everything. There's nothing that is not
under this curse. But if there is any silver
lining to this, it is this. The curse reminds us this is not
our home and it cultivates a longing in us to go home.
Every time that we experience the pain and the sadness and the
destruction of this life, let it be a reminder.
This is not how God made this world.
This is not how God intended this world.
There is a perfect world out there.
It does exist. One word, death and sadness and
pain do not exist, and I long to be there.
I long to go there. Brothers and sisters, let the
curse cultivate A craving for Christ in your life.
Let's pray.