1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:03,560 One turn to Genesis 3 verses 7 through 13. 2 00:00:03,560 --> 00:00:06,040 If you don't have a Bible with you, no problem. 3 00:00:06,360 --> 00:00:10,720 We'll have all the the relevant Bible verses on on the screen 4 00:00:10,720 --> 00:00:12,960 for you. Let me catch you up if this is 5 00:00:12,960 --> 00:00:17,880 your first week here last week in last week's episode of 6 00:00:17,880 --> 00:00:21,240 expository preaching, what ends up happening is in this this 7 00:00:21,240 --> 00:00:24,840 great environment, this lovely environment in the in the Garden 8 00:00:24,840 --> 00:00:28,280 of Eden, Adam and Eve end up sinning. 9 00:00:28,280 --> 00:00:32,520 It's the original sin, the first sin in a world of infinite 10 00:00:32,520 --> 00:00:33,880 yeses. You can. 11 00:00:33,880 --> 00:00:37,240 All these trees are for you. The whole world is yours. 12 00:00:37,240 --> 00:00:41,600 Have dominion. They do the one no in a sea of 13 00:00:41,640 --> 00:00:44,240 infinite yeses. They do the one no that God 14 00:00:44,240 --> 00:00:47,440 tells them not to do. They eat the tree of the 15 00:00:47,440 --> 00:00:52,040 knowledge of good and evil. And the effect of that sin is 16 00:00:52,040 --> 00:00:58,760 not just a singular event or a singular action that's committed 17 00:00:58,760 --> 00:01:01,920 by the historical figures of Adam and Eve. 18 00:01:01,920 --> 00:01:06,600 It's it is that, but it's far more than a singular action. 19 00:01:06,600 --> 00:01:09,640 What ends up happening, and we'll dig more deeply into this 20 00:01:10,040 --> 00:01:15,680 this morning, is that there's a distortion of the entire nature 21 00:01:15,920 --> 00:01:20,160 of mankind. Sin enters into human nature, 22 00:01:20,160 --> 00:01:24,200 and Adam and Eve upon sinning are corrupted by a sinful 23 00:01:24,200 --> 00:01:26,440 nature. And So what we, what we see in 24 00:01:26,440 --> 00:01:35,800 our text this morning is a surgical, precise, mathematical 25 00:01:36,160 --> 00:01:42,120 look into how the sinful human nature operates. 26 00:01:42,720 --> 00:01:47,280 And this sinful human nature is essentially an operating system 27 00:01:47,760 --> 00:01:50,800 that's composed of 2 automatic responses. 28 00:01:51,200 --> 00:01:56,960 And this operating system is not just built into bad people or 29 00:01:56,960 --> 00:02:00,160 the people who end up on the news or the people behind bars. 30 00:02:00,440 --> 00:02:04,040 It's an operating system that naturally exists within all of 31 00:02:04,040 --> 00:02:05,280 us. And this operating system is 32 00:02:05,280 --> 00:02:11,120 composed of 2 automatic responses which are hiding and 33 00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:15,280 blame shifting. We'll take them one at a time. 34 00:02:15,280 --> 00:02:17,960 Should be a happy go lucky uplifting morning folks. 35 00:02:17,960 --> 00:02:19,800 So if you're able, let's go ahead and stand for the reading 36 00:02:19,800 --> 00:02:25,920 of the Word of God. God creates everything. 37 00:02:26,520 --> 00:02:31,320 He gives Adam and Eve infinite yeses, the world, all the trees 38 00:02:31,320 --> 00:02:35,600 besides one, there's one No, the serpent slithers and deceives 39 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:38,600 Adam and Eve. They do the one no, they commit 40 00:02:38,600 --> 00:02:43,040 the original sin. And then this happens in verse 41 00:02:43,320 --> 00:02:47,400 7. What's going to happen Then? 42 00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:55,080 The eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked, 43 00:02:56,320 --> 00:03:02,560 and so they sewed fig leaves together and made for themselves 44 00:03:02,560 --> 00:03:05,440 loincloths. And then they heard the sound of 45 00:03:05,440 --> 00:03:09,000 the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, 46 00:03:10,520 --> 00:03:17,680 and the man and his wife hid. They hid themselves. 47 00:03:20,280 --> 00:03:23,080 They hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among 48 00:03:23,080 --> 00:03:27,440 the trees of the garden. But God will not be mocked. 49 00:03:27,440 --> 00:03:30,800 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are 50 00:03:30,800 --> 00:03:34,400 you? Maybe that's God's question for 51 00:03:34,400 --> 00:03:35,920 you this morning. Where are you? 52 00:03:37,320 --> 00:03:42,080 Where are you? And Adam said, Well, I heard the 53 00:03:42,080 --> 00:03:51,280 sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was 54 00:03:51,280 --> 00:03:56,480 naked, and so I hid myself. And God said, Who told you that 55 00:03:56,480 --> 00:04:00,000 you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of 56 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:02,400 which I commanded you not to eat? 57 00:04:04,880 --> 00:04:12,840 The man said it was her and it was you, it was the woman whom 58 00:04:13,840 --> 00:04:16,680 you gave to be with me. She gave me the fruit of the 59 00:04:16,680 --> 00:04:18,560 tree, and all I did was eat it. I ate. 60 00:04:20,600 --> 00:04:23,000 So the Lord God said to the woman, what is this that you 61 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:26,840 have done? And the woman said it. 62 00:04:26,840 --> 00:04:29,840 It was the serpent. The serpent deceived me. 63 00:04:30,960 --> 00:04:35,760 All I did was eat. Heavenly Father, I, I, I was. 64 00:04:36,280 --> 00:04:39,880 I was struck by that line in the worship song. 65 00:04:41,800 --> 00:04:45,440 Your perfect love has drowned out all my fears. 66 00:04:47,760 --> 00:04:49,560 There's a lot of fear in churches. 67 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:55,240 A lot of people are afraid. What if people find out who I 68 00:04:55,240 --> 00:04:57,920 am? What if people found out what I 69 00:04:57,920 --> 00:04:59,720 did? What if people find out what 70 00:04:59,720 --> 00:05:01,840 goes on in in my head, in my heart? 71 00:05:01,840 --> 00:05:05,040 There's a lot of fear. And that fear produces a lot of 72 00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:09,560 fig fig leaves and masks and hiding and, and pretending. 73 00:05:11,640 --> 00:05:13,680 And all of that is the result of fear. 74 00:05:15,480 --> 00:05:17,320 None of that is the result of faith. 75 00:05:18,640 --> 00:05:21,480 And so, Lord, would you produce in us a deeper faith in the 76 00:05:21,480 --> 00:05:25,920 Gospel that says I am? God already knows me. 77 00:05:25,960 --> 00:05:30,040 He already knows all my past and present and future, since all 78 00:05:30,040 --> 00:05:33,080 the stuff about me. And through the blood of Jesus 79 00:05:33,080 --> 00:05:34,720 Christ, he still chooses to love me. 80 00:05:34,720 --> 00:05:37,440 So what can man, what can man do to me? 81 00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:42,480 May as well be myself, because what can man do to me if God has 82 00:05:42,480 --> 00:05:43,880 forgiven me? That's faith. 83 00:05:44,520 --> 00:05:48,120 Would you reach your heavenly hand down and give us that this 84 00:05:48,120 --> 00:05:49,320 morning? It's in the precious name of 85 00:05:49,320 --> 00:05:50,680 Jesus that all God's people prayed. 86 00:05:51,640 --> 00:05:52,600 Amen. You can have a seat. 87 00:05:57,280 --> 00:06:01,560 Sinful nature has an operating system composed of 2 automatic 88 00:06:01,560 --> 00:06:03,680 responses. It's in me, it's in you, it's in 89 00:06:04,200 --> 00:06:07,080 all of us. Hiding and blame shifting. 90 00:06:07,080 --> 00:06:09,520 Everybody does them with no exception. 91 00:06:09,520 --> 00:06:11,800 So we're just going to start with the first one, which is 92 00:06:12,080 --> 00:06:14,840 hiding. We see that immediately when sin 93 00:06:14,840 --> 00:06:16,360 enters into the picture we see, what do we see? 94 00:06:16,360 --> 00:06:20,840 We see fig leaves. Did you notice that fig leaves 95 00:06:20,840 --> 00:06:24,720 baby Adam and Eve? Sin, God comes looking for them 96 00:06:25,200 --> 00:06:27,520 and then verse 7 ends up happening. 97 00:06:27,720 --> 00:06:34,400 The eyes of both were open and they knew that they were naked, 98 00:06:34,760 --> 00:06:38,360 and so they sewed fig leaves together and made for 99 00:06:38,360 --> 00:06:41,800 themselves, lowering claws. So let's talk about fig leaves. 100 00:06:41,800 --> 00:06:43,880 I'm probably going to say some stuff in the sermon that's going 101 00:06:43,880 --> 00:06:47,640 to make you uncomfortable, but that's actually like a pretty 102 00:06:47,640 --> 00:06:50,080 big part of my job. And I'm not even going to 103 00:06:50,080 --> 00:06:52,320 pretend to not enjoy that part of my job. 104 00:06:52,320 --> 00:06:54,040 I love making people uncomfortable. 105 00:06:54,280 --> 00:06:56,320 It's like my whole personality, right? 106 00:06:56,320 --> 00:06:58,080 If you've been under my preaching for a while, you know 107 00:06:58,080 --> 00:06:59,400 that I like to push the envelope. 108 00:06:59,920 --> 00:07:03,000 I don't, I don't like to push the envelope just to be edgy. 109 00:07:03,360 --> 00:07:05,760 I like to push the envelope because sometimes that's the 110 00:07:05,760 --> 00:07:07,600 only way to make Christians think. 111 00:07:08,840 --> 00:07:11,160 A lot of times Christians, they approach the word of God being 112 00:07:11,160 --> 00:07:13,200 like, yeah, I know this story. I grew up with a story and they 113 00:07:13,200 --> 00:07:15,160 shut their brains off. And so sometimes what you have 114 00:07:15,160 --> 00:07:18,480 to do is you have to provoke a little bit, push the envelope a 115 00:07:18,480 --> 00:07:21,400 little bit and jar Christians into thinking. 116 00:07:21,400 --> 00:07:23,280 And we'll probably do that this morning because what Adam and 117 00:07:23,280 --> 00:07:25,920 Eve, what they don't do, I don't know if you noticed this, this 118 00:07:25,920 --> 00:07:29,200 is kind of a small observation, But what Adam and Eve don't do 119 00:07:29,360 --> 00:07:32,080 is just pick up a fig leaf and then cover their private parts. 120 00:07:32,160 --> 00:07:35,400 That's not exactly what they do. Maybe you've seen paintings 121 00:07:35,400 --> 00:07:37,760 where they're like, you know, doing this with like a little 122 00:07:37,760 --> 00:07:39,560 fig leaf and just that's not actually what's going on here. 123 00:07:40,360 --> 00:07:42,440 And we know that for a couple different reasons. 124 00:07:42,440 --> 00:07:44,280 We know that because of common sense. 125 00:07:44,280 --> 00:07:47,120 And we also know that because of the biblical text, common sense. 126 00:07:47,560 --> 00:07:50,480 Common sense is that fig leaves, and I need you to get this, and 127 00:07:50,480 --> 00:07:52,960 I'm going to say this without laughing because I'm an adult, 128 00:07:53,680 --> 00:08:00,440 fig leaves, they were too small to cover up what needed covering 129 00:08:00,520 --> 00:08:02,920 up. And so to the ancient world, as 130 00:08:02,920 --> 00:08:06,000 sad as this text is, it also would have been, it also would 131 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:08,760 have had a comedic element to it where they're like, the idea of 132 00:08:08,760 --> 00:08:12,160 hiding your nakedness with fig leaves is absurd. 133 00:08:12,720 --> 00:08:15,360 How foolish that's supposed to be. 134 00:08:15,760 --> 00:08:18,440 What's happening here? It's supposed to be a little bit 135 00:08:18,440 --> 00:08:20,240 funny. And we also know that they're 136 00:08:20,240 --> 00:08:23,760 not just covering themselves up by holding a fig leaf up because 137 00:08:23,760 --> 00:08:27,080 texturally the Bible says that they had to. 138 00:08:27,080 --> 00:08:35,799 What so And to sew the fig leaves together? 139 00:08:36,600 --> 00:08:41,400 I've never sewn anything. You could probably tell that by 140 00:08:41,400 --> 00:08:45,080 my personality. Not a big sewing guy, but I've 141 00:08:45,080 --> 00:08:49,600 heard that sewing is really labor intensive. 142 00:08:49,600 --> 00:08:53,520 What this implies is that the work of hiding themselves, 143 00:08:53,520 --> 00:08:57,280 trying to cover up their sin and shame, was actually hard work. 144 00:08:57,280 --> 00:09:01,600 They had to find stuff to sew the leaves together with. 145 00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:04,480 That's hard work. They had to go through trial and 146 00:09:04,480 --> 00:09:05,600 error. They had to go through 147 00:09:05,600 --> 00:09:09,520 processes. Oh, that didn't work, this did. 148 00:09:09,760 --> 00:09:12,160 Eve. Eve, how does this look right 149 00:09:12,160 --> 00:09:14,040 here? Still buck naked buddy. 150 00:09:14,040 --> 00:09:15,360 Keep sewing. Right? 151 00:09:16,000 --> 00:09:17,960 How'd say Adam? How does this look? 152 00:09:18,160 --> 00:09:20,320 Still naked honey? Keep sewing. 153 00:09:20,320 --> 00:09:24,640 There was a whole trial and error process here, and the idea 154 00:09:24,640 --> 00:09:28,200 here is that trying to clothe with yourselves by sewing 155 00:09:28,200 --> 00:09:31,400 together fig leaves is exhausting. 156 00:09:31,560 --> 00:09:34,200 And it's also crazy. And that's the point. 157 00:09:35,200 --> 00:09:44,040 The point here is that every human attempt at self salvation 158 00:09:44,960 --> 00:09:50,800 is foolish. It's human beings trying to 159 00:09:50,800 --> 00:09:57,040 solve individually by hiding what can only be solved 160 00:09:57,080 --> 00:10:01,400 communally by the grace of God. And this is an important 161 00:10:01,400 --> 00:10:04,320 observation to make because you need to get this Sin doesn't 162 00:10:04,320 --> 00:10:06,400 just make us guilty, although it does. 163 00:10:07,120 --> 00:10:10,680 It also makes us stupid. It makes us very, very, very 164 00:10:10,680 --> 00:10:13,440 stupid thinking that we can hide from God and hide from people. 165 00:10:13,440 --> 00:10:17,680 And it makes us very, very, very busy trying to fix ourselves. 166 00:10:17,680 --> 00:10:19,840 It's, it's, it's labor intensive. 167 00:10:19,840 --> 00:10:23,200 The process of hiding is labor intensive. 168 00:10:23,200 --> 00:10:26,800 It's labor intensive to clear your browser history and hide 169 00:10:26,800 --> 00:10:30,360 your text messages and hide your receipts from your spouses. 170 00:10:30,360 --> 00:10:33,680 Or let's just say it this way, it's labor intensive to put on a 171 00:10:33,680 --> 00:10:38,440 mask for church people in order to fit in at clown show, isn't 172 00:10:38,440 --> 00:10:40,320 it? It's just exhausting. 173 00:10:40,720 --> 00:10:49,240 I I sometimes wonder, Everybody's tired. 174 00:10:50,240 --> 00:10:52,280 There's so much fatigue. I feel it too. 175 00:10:52,760 --> 00:11:00,000 Sometimes I wonder, like how much of our daily fatigue is the 176 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:03,960 result of how much effort it just takes to hide ourselves, 177 00:11:05,800 --> 00:11:08,040 You know, is it like 50% of our fatigue? 178 00:11:09,320 --> 00:11:12,040 Is it 95%? It's exhausting. 179 00:11:13,320 --> 00:11:14,760 How we going to sew this together? 180 00:11:14,760 --> 00:11:16,480 Let's find some materials and sew this together. 181 00:11:16,640 --> 00:11:17,600 OK. Is this big enough? 182 00:11:17,640 --> 00:11:18,200 No. OK. 183 00:11:18,240 --> 00:11:19,680 I got to keep going. I got to keep sewing. 184 00:11:19,680 --> 00:11:24,480 It's all just exhausting. How much time do you spend on a 185 00:11:24,480 --> 00:11:32,920 daily basis sewing, Sewing fig leaves together to hide what God 186 00:11:33,200 --> 00:11:35,520 already sees? And probably the closest people 187 00:11:35,520 --> 00:11:39,080 in your life already see it too, I wonder. 188 00:11:39,080 --> 00:11:40,600 Let's take the pressure off for just a second here though. 189 00:11:41,520 --> 00:11:43,560 You guys notice verse 9. What do you guys make of that? 190 00:11:45,560 --> 00:11:50,600 Something problematic or seemingly problematic in it? 191 00:11:50,920 --> 00:11:56,960 Because after Adam and Eve sin and hide themselves, God goes to 192 00:11:56,960 --> 00:12:02,080 Adam and what's he say? He says where are you? 193 00:12:04,240 --> 00:12:08,160 Isn't that problematic? It's problematic because it 194 00:12:08,680 --> 00:12:13,000 doesn't God's question. Where are you imply that the 195 00:12:13,000 --> 00:12:16,960 hiding worked. I actually had a conversation 196 00:12:16,960 --> 00:12:21,520 with this somebody a while ago and I and I heard this line of 197 00:12:21,560 --> 00:12:23,360 argument. In this conversation, he was 198 00:12:23,360 --> 00:12:26,800 with a non Christian solid dude, but he was seeking to disprove 199 00:12:26,800 --> 00:12:29,880 the omniscience of God. Omniscience is God's all knowing 200 00:12:29,880 --> 00:12:32,680 quality that he was everything that could happen and everything 201 00:12:32,680 --> 00:12:35,760 that does happen. And he asked the question, well, 202 00:12:36,360 --> 00:12:39,840 doesn't the question imply that he doesn't know the answer? 203 00:12:39,840 --> 00:12:42,080 Why does? If God is omniscient, why does 204 00:12:42,080 --> 00:12:44,920 he have to ask that question if he knows everything? 205 00:12:44,920 --> 00:12:47,280 If you have to ask the question, then he doesn't know everything. 206 00:12:47,280 --> 00:12:50,560 And so you're actually importing this concept of omniscience onto 207 00:12:50,560 --> 00:12:52,440 the text, and it's not actually there. 208 00:12:52,600 --> 00:12:57,680 See, Right. This is actually a pretty easy 209 00:12:57,680 --> 00:13:00,920 question to answer. Why does God ask that question? 210 00:13:01,920 --> 00:13:07,120 Because that's what good leaders do Read the Bible. 211 00:13:07,120 --> 00:13:14,720 God loves to ask questions that he already knows the answer to. 212 00:13:15,840 --> 00:13:17,240 It's actually just good leadership. 213 00:13:17,880 --> 00:13:20,840 He's being a good parent. He loves, He loves to do that. 214 00:13:20,840 --> 00:13:22,640 He loves because he loves participation. 215 00:13:23,200 --> 00:13:26,160 What he's doing is he's inviting Adam and Eve to dialogue with 216 00:13:26,160 --> 00:13:28,440 them and to participate with them, even though he already 217 00:13:28,760 --> 00:13:31,800 knows everything. What this is, this is hide and 218 00:13:31,800 --> 00:13:33,640 seek with your children. You guys play hide and seek with 219 00:13:33,640 --> 00:13:37,600 your kids when your kid, when your kids hide as a parent, 220 00:13:38,240 --> 00:13:41,680 like, you know, you know where they're at, right? 221 00:13:41,720 --> 00:13:45,480 Like, this is like me walking around my house being like, 222 00:13:45,480 --> 00:13:50,520 where's Jack? Actually, that's not a good 223 00:13:50,520 --> 00:13:55,240 illustration because sometimes I don't know where he is. 224 00:13:55,240 --> 00:13:57,520 It's like when I walk around the house, I'm like, where's 225 00:13:57,520 --> 00:14:00,320 Russell? Wow, where's Della? 226 00:14:00,480 --> 00:14:04,200 You know where they're at. Why are you asking the question? 227 00:14:04,200 --> 00:14:05,920 You're asking the question because you want part. 228 00:14:05,920 --> 00:14:09,720 Participation is fun. You want to participate. 229 00:14:09,880 --> 00:14:11,680 That's what God is doing right here. 230 00:14:11,880 --> 00:14:15,640 Where's Adam? Where's Eve hiding? 231 00:14:15,640 --> 00:14:17,240 Where's Russell? Where's Jack at? 232 00:14:17,400 --> 00:14:21,560 He knows he's inviting them into participation and relationship 233 00:14:21,960 --> 00:14:28,560 with them and and they do what they hide and so do you and so 234 00:14:28,560 --> 00:14:30,920 do I. And there are many forms of 235 00:14:30,920 --> 00:14:32,680 hiding. There are endless forms of 236 00:14:32,680 --> 00:14:33,760 hiding. We find what? 237 00:14:34,720 --> 00:14:38,000 I think the fact that they sew fig leaves together is actually 238 00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:41,560 pretty creative. Nobody has sown before they 239 00:14:41,560 --> 00:14:44,000 invent it. Human beings are endlessly 240 00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:47,800 creative and like all the different ways that we discover 241 00:14:48,040 --> 00:14:50,240 and formulate in order to hide ourselves. 242 00:14:50,240 --> 00:14:52,680 And so I'll give you a couple, even though there's more ways of 243 00:14:52,680 --> 00:14:55,160 hiding than this. The first way of hiding from 244 00:14:55,160 --> 00:14:57,880 God, from other people is the simplest form. 245 00:14:57,880 --> 00:15:02,560 It's covering what ends up when we cover our sin or think we 246 00:15:02,560 --> 00:15:04,240 cover our sin. Is you sin? 247 00:15:04,640 --> 00:15:09,840 Because we all sin on a daily basis And rather than going to 248 00:15:09,840 --> 00:15:15,640 the altar where the Father's arms are open wide, forgiveness 249 00:15:15,640 --> 00:15:18,400 was bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. 250 00:15:18,600 --> 00:15:21,600 Instead of doing that, we just cover it. 251 00:15:21,600 --> 00:15:25,320 We decide to not talk about it, or we hide it, or we delete it, 252 00:15:25,320 --> 00:15:28,200 or we pray that people won't ask questions, or we keep it hidden 253 00:15:28,200 --> 00:15:31,360 in the secret drawer. And of course, all of this is 254 00:15:31,360 --> 00:15:33,000 foolish. It's all fig leaves. 255 00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:35,560 It's all based on this assumption that we can. 256 00:15:36,160 --> 00:15:39,240 I don't know that we can. I'm going to take it to the 257 00:15:39,240 --> 00:15:41,160 grave with me. No, you're not. 258 00:15:42,160 --> 00:15:44,920 If you believe in God, you can't take anything to the grave with 259 00:15:44,920 --> 00:15:47,400 you. All you can do is take it into 260 00:15:47,400 --> 00:15:50,760 judgement day with you. But out with it. 261 00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:56,520 No hiding, no covering. All you end up doing is taking 262 00:15:56,520 --> 00:15:59,480 into judgement day with you. Covering is ineffective. 263 00:15:59,480 --> 00:16:01,040 It doesn't work. It's fig leaves. 264 00:16:01,280 --> 00:16:03,560 But there's other, more creative ways of hiding too. 265 00:16:04,240 --> 00:16:07,720 Which brings me to the second way that people tend to hide, 266 00:16:07,720 --> 00:16:14,640 which is performing. This is what church people tend 267 00:16:14,640 --> 00:16:19,920 to love to do, perform when they sin. 268 00:16:19,920 --> 00:16:24,880 When we sin, rather than coming to the altar where the Father's 269 00:16:24,960 --> 00:16:29,640 arms are open wide, what we end up doing is we make a list of 270 00:16:29,640 --> 00:16:33,520 religious things to perform so that we can go to God's presence 271 00:16:33,520 --> 00:16:36,440 later on and try to earn his love back. 272 00:16:36,440 --> 00:16:39,360 It usually looks like this. You sin and you say rather than 273 00:16:39,360 --> 00:16:41,840 running immediately to God and repenting and asking for 274 00:16:41,840 --> 00:16:44,640 forgiveness, what you end up doing, you say, OK, so here's 275 00:16:44,880 --> 00:16:48,360 here's my game plan. I'll ask God for forgiveness 276 00:16:48,360 --> 00:16:52,080 after I do an hour of Bible reading, 30 minutes of prayer, 277 00:16:52,800 --> 00:16:56,920 lash myself on the back 40 times, do five hours of 278 00:16:56,920 --> 00:17:01,960 community service, and then he'll accept me stupid. 279 00:17:02,160 --> 00:17:05,280 Another attempt at self salvation, fig leaves. 280 00:17:05,640 --> 00:17:07,640 And you know, this doesn't work because you know the way that 281 00:17:07,640 --> 00:17:10,960 relationships work. Like imagine, imagine if 282 00:17:10,960 --> 00:17:16,680 somebody that you love deeply sins against you grievously and 283 00:17:16,680 --> 00:17:24,720 that person, that that person buys you flowers that day and 284 00:17:25,400 --> 00:17:27,760 makes the dinner and says really nice things to you. 285 00:17:27,760 --> 00:17:29,800 And you're like, wow, he's being really nice right now. 286 00:17:30,200 --> 00:17:33,200 He does all the dishes and he says really nice things to you, 287 00:17:33,200 --> 00:17:36,000 and then after doing all of these really nice things, sits 288 00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:38,480 down with you and it's like, hey, I need to tell you 289 00:17:38,480 --> 00:17:40,560 something. But if I tell you this, you 290 00:17:40,560 --> 00:17:44,720 can't get mad at me. And then they confess their sin. 291 00:17:45,680 --> 00:17:51,920 When that happens, how does that make you feel about all the nice 292 00:17:51,920 --> 00:17:54,720 things they did leading up to that moment? 293 00:17:56,600 --> 00:17:59,280 Makes you feel cheap, doesn't it? 294 00:18:01,080 --> 00:18:03,720 It makes it feel cheap, like it was all just a strategic, 295 00:18:04,160 --> 00:18:07,640 honestly narcissist, narcissistic attempt to 296 00:18:07,640 --> 00:18:11,400 manipulate you into not being angry about what they did. 297 00:18:11,400 --> 00:18:15,000 It feels like it was all just a performance, right? 298 00:18:15,440 --> 00:18:17,200 It's like, I just want you to come to me. 299 00:18:17,200 --> 00:18:20,000 We prepare, be sorry, allow me to be rightly angry and I'll 300 00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:21,480 forgive you and we'll work through this. 301 00:18:21,760 --> 00:18:23,680 But all the performing is hollow. 302 00:18:24,880 --> 00:18:28,200 He was motivated by some attempt to make me less angry at what 303 00:18:28,200 --> 00:18:29,720 you did, not because you love me. 304 00:18:29,880 --> 00:18:32,600 This is the way it is with God and religious performing too. 305 00:18:32,800 --> 00:18:36,680 You can't earn your way into the presence of God, so don't 306 00:18:36,680 --> 00:18:39,680 perform with him. But there's also more creative 307 00:18:39,680 --> 00:18:44,360 ways, like the third one, which is minimizing. 308 00:18:44,360 --> 00:18:46,880 Minimizing is also a form of hiding. 309 00:18:47,080 --> 00:18:49,240 And this is also something that religious people love to do. 310 00:18:49,240 --> 00:18:53,200 What what minimizing is is this is attempt at self salvation and 311 00:18:53,200 --> 00:18:58,240 hiding by, by strategically comparing your sins with the 312 00:18:58,240 --> 00:19:05,000 worst sins in the world. You know, you sin and then you 313 00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:06,920 confess it to somebody and you're like, well, at least I 314 00:19:06,920 --> 00:19:12,120 didn't kill somebody. It's like, dude, at least I'm 315 00:19:12,120 --> 00:19:16,320 not Hitler. Well, the well, the neighbor's 316 00:19:16,400 --> 00:19:20,560 husband actually cheated on her. So at least I didn't do that. 317 00:19:21,960 --> 00:19:27,240 It's all minimizing foolishness, fig leaves, hiding. 318 00:19:27,480 --> 00:19:31,600 It's actually an attempt to use other people's failures as a 319 00:19:31,600 --> 00:19:36,080 shield to hide behind, to try to manipulate God and other people 320 00:19:36,080 --> 00:19:39,280 away from justice. What I think what it, what that 321 00:19:39,280 --> 00:19:43,840 actually is, is it's actually a form of idolatry because you are 322 00:19:43,840 --> 00:19:50,720 worshipping, you are worshipping other people's sins as your God 323 00:19:52,280 --> 00:19:55,480 because you're treating their sins as a shield to hide behind. 324 00:19:56,880 --> 00:20:02,800 And God is your shield. God alone is your shield, not 325 00:20:03,360 --> 00:20:06,800 what somebody else did. And so all these forms of 326 00:20:06,800 --> 00:20:11,080 hiding, they don't work or worse sometimes when people they do 327 00:20:11,080 --> 00:20:12,160 work. And that's a scary thing, 328 00:20:12,160 --> 00:20:15,120 because one of my least favorite things about unhealthy churches 329 00:20:16,240 --> 00:20:21,120 is that they some sometimes unhealthy churches have. 330 00:20:22,560 --> 00:20:25,160 They have the habit of rewarding hiding. 331 00:20:25,160 --> 00:20:31,120 Have you ever noticed that, like in certain church cultures, if 332 00:20:31,120 --> 00:20:36,200 people pretend to be a certain way and put on a mask and just 333 00:20:36,200 --> 00:20:39,680 regurgitate what they hear their church leaders say and just act 334 00:20:39,680 --> 00:20:43,280 like they're church leaders and minimize their own struggles and 335 00:20:43,280 --> 00:20:44,920 addictions? What ends up happening is the 336 00:20:44,920 --> 00:20:48,160 church often rewards those people with leadership 337 00:20:48,160 --> 00:20:51,840 positions. What ends up happening is it 338 00:20:51,840 --> 00:20:53,680 creates a culture where everybody's like, yeah, we 339 00:20:53,680 --> 00:20:55,200 pretend. That's what we do here. 340 00:20:56,120 --> 00:20:59,560 We're religious, so we hide. That's what we do. 341 00:20:59,560 --> 00:21:02,520 We perform. And This is why so many churches 342 00:21:02,520 --> 00:21:04,720 contend in the direction of just being a clown show. 343 00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:08,320 Because, yes, leaders in the church need to set the tone with 344 00:21:08,320 --> 00:21:11,280 truth. Can't minimize that. 345 00:21:11,920 --> 00:21:14,640 But the leaders in your church also need to set the temperature 346 00:21:15,240 --> 00:21:18,480 so that repentance and transparency is actually normal 347 00:21:18,760 --> 00:21:22,440 and expected and not weaponized against people. 348 00:21:22,440 --> 00:21:25,200 If I mean, if I were you, I just, I would actually. 349 00:21:25,200 --> 00:21:27,960 I wouldn't trust religious leaders or religious people who 350 00:21:28,080 --> 00:21:34,560 also aren't transparent. It builds A performative culture 351 00:21:35,360 --> 00:21:40,760 covering, performing, minimizing. 352 00:21:40,760 --> 00:21:43,280 I wonder which of those three you struggle with the most. 353 00:21:44,840 --> 00:21:48,240 They're all fig leaves. It's all hide and seek with God. 354 00:21:48,720 --> 00:21:52,000 And of course, if you keep reading the story, just when you 355 00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:55,040 think, oh gosh, they're hiding themselves with fig leaves, they 356 00:21:55,040 --> 00:21:56,960 can't get any worse. It does. 357 00:21:57,080 --> 00:21:59,480 It gets worse. When they get found out and 358 00:21:59,480 --> 00:22:01,800 there's nowhere to hide, what do Adam and Eve do? 359 00:22:02,080 --> 00:22:06,480 They relate and resort to the second default operating system 360 00:22:06,480 --> 00:22:08,520 of the human heart. Hiding doesn't work. 361 00:22:08,720 --> 00:22:12,920 So they go shoot. OK, flame shifting. 362 00:22:14,200 --> 00:22:15,640 Isn't that what's going on in verse 10? 363 00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:17,560 Right. Look at him. 364 00:22:18,480 --> 00:22:21,080 God's like, where are you? And Adam's like, well, I heard 365 00:22:21,080 --> 00:22:24,080 the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was 366 00:22:24,080 --> 00:22:25,440 naked. And so I hid myself. 367 00:22:25,920 --> 00:22:27,720 God says, well, who told you that you're naked? 368 00:22:27,720 --> 00:22:30,120 Did you eat of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? 369 00:22:30,640 --> 00:22:37,200 Did did you sin? And the man said, the woman whom 370 00:22:37,200 --> 00:22:42,960 you gave, it's not a good start. Adam, did you sin? 371 00:22:43,480 --> 00:22:46,880 It was you and her. So those are probably the last 372 00:22:46,880 --> 00:22:49,760 two people you want to blame is your spouse and your God. 373 00:22:49,760 --> 00:22:53,000 That's what he does. There's the woman you gave to 374 00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:54,560 me. She gave it to me. 375 00:22:54,560 --> 00:22:57,920 I just ate. So the Lord walks over the one 376 00:22:57,920 --> 00:23:00,200 and he says, what is this thing that you have done? 377 00:23:00,480 --> 00:23:06,280 And she says, well, I do it. The serpent that you created, 378 00:23:06,920 --> 00:23:09,520 the serpent deceived me. All I did was eat. 379 00:23:09,520 --> 00:23:12,080 What is this? What is this? 380 00:23:12,120 --> 00:23:14,440 What's happening in this back and forth? 381 00:23:14,440 --> 00:23:15,760 What's happening in this dialogue? 382 00:23:16,760 --> 00:23:18,600 Adam, what'd you do? Wasn't me. 383 00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:21,160 It's her evil. What'd you do? 384 00:23:21,160 --> 00:23:22,080 Wasn't me. It was it. 385 00:23:22,560 --> 00:23:25,720 What is this? This is this is blame shifting. 386 00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:30,000 And so before blame shifting, we all have the tendency to do 387 00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:32,440 this. And so before we approach blame 388 00:23:32,440 --> 00:23:34,680 shifting bluntly, I want to I want to approach it 389 00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:37,480 metaphorically. So let's let's start right here. 390 00:23:37,720 --> 00:23:39,280 Imagine. Imagine you have a cell phone. 391 00:23:40,680 --> 00:23:44,800 Most of you do. And you've got your cell phone 392 00:23:44,800 --> 00:23:48,120 cable that came with the phone. Sorry, Joseph. 393 00:23:48,120 --> 00:23:49,600 I think I stole this from you this morning. 394 00:23:49,600 --> 00:23:51,400 I came up with this idea last minute. 395 00:23:51,840 --> 00:23:53,400 He's not in the room. Don't tell him I did this. 396 00:23:54,600 --> 00:23:56,240 Oh, I think I stole this from you. 397 00:23:56,240 --> 00:23:59,120 I'll give it back. So imagine you got your iPhone, 398 00:23:59,120 --> 00:24:00,920 right? And it dies. 399 00:24:01,920 --> 00:24:04,200 Panic ensues. Oh, no, My phone's dead. 400 00:24:06,440 --> 00:24:08,520 You grab. What do you do? 401 00:24:08,520 --> 00:24:13,280 Grab your charger. You put it in this end, and I 402 00:24:13,280 --> 00:24:19,080 want you to imagine what you do with the other end is you just 403 00:24:19,080 --> 00:24:22,600 drop it on the floor. What happens? 404 00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:29,520 You look at your phone and it goes from 0% to 0%. 405 00:24:30,880 --> 00:24:32,680 What? What's happening? 406 00:24:32,680 --> 00:24:37,920 You didn't plug in. And so let's assume you assume, 407 00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:43,160 OK, the cable isn't working. OK, I'm done with this, done 408 00:24:43,160 --> 00:24:45,200 with the cable, it's not working. 409 00:24:45,480 --> 00:24:50,000 So you go to Amazon, same day shipping, baby, Praise the Lord. 410 00:24:51,120 --> 00:24:53,920 You look at you look at the reviews, you look at the 411 00:24:53,920 --> 00:24:56,600 reviews, you find a good one. You're like, OK, I'm going to 412 00:24:56,640 --> 00:24:59,000 order that one. So you order a new cable because 413 00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:02,200 the previous cable didn't work. The cable comes in same day 414 00:25:02,200 --> 00:25:05,520 delivery. Like, OK, I need to text my 415 00:25:05,520 --> 00:25:07,280 parents back. So let's get this thing charged. 416 00:25:07,800 --> 00:25:09,200 Take one end, put it right there. 417 00:25:10,600 --> 00:25:14,600 You take the other end, you drop it on the floor. 418 00:25:15,920 --> 00:25:18,720 You don't plug in. You wait a couple minutes. 419 00:25:18,720 --> 00:25:20,560 You're like, this one's not working either. 420 00:25:21,560 --> 00:25:24,360 What is? Gosh, what is going on? 421 00:25:25,400 --> 00:25:31,680 So you assume it's the cable. That one didn't work either. 422 00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:34,240 So you get rid of that one. You Chuck that one. 423 00:25:34,840 --> 00:25:37,960 So what you do is you end up going to the nice tech store in 424 00:25:37,960 --> 00:25:39,880 town. I'm going to talk with somebody 425 00:25:39,880 --> 00:25:42,800 who understands tech, you know, you talk with and I want, I want 426 00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:44,360 the best one. I ain't the one that charges the 427 00:25:44,360 --> 00:25:45,840 best because my other chargers didn't work. 428 00:25:46,080 --> 00:25:47,880 So you spend like 50 bucks and you get the best 1. 429 00:25:48,040 --> 00:25:49,400 So you get the best one. You're right. 430 00:25:49,400 --> 00:25:51,760 You take it home. What do you do? 431 00:25:51,800 --> 00:25:56,920 You put it in this end. This is going to be the one that 432 00:25:56,920 --> 00:26:01,400 works. You take the other end and you 433 00:26:01,400 --> 00:26:03,880 lay it on the floor. You're like what? 434 00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:08,040 What in the heck is happening? None of these cables. 435 00:26:08,480 --> 00:26:11,160 It's the cables. None of these cables are 436 00:26:11,160 --> 00:26:14,800 working. So you take that cable like I'm 437 00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:16,240 done. I'm done with that cable. 438 00:26:16,560 --> 00:26:21,080 You Chuck that one and then you keep on recycling through it and 439 00:26:21,080 --> 00:26:26,680 all of a sudden, days later you've spent hundreds of dollars 440 00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:30,560 on phone cables and none of them work. 441 00:26:30,560 --> 00:26:34,040 You just recycle through phone cables and you still got a dead 442 00:26:34,040 --> 00:26:38,400 phone. Why am I telling the story? 443 00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:42,480 Because this is mostly everybody's life. 444 00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:47,960 I have to say this. It's not the cable. 445 00:26:49,480 --> 00:26:54,920 The cable's not the problem. Listen to me most times, some 446 00:26:54,920 --> 00:26:59,560 exceptions, extreme exceptions. Most times the cable isn't the 447 00:26:59,560 --> 00:27:02,560 problem. You didn't plug in. 448 00:27:04,200 --> 00:27:08,680 It's you. You didn't plug in and as long 449 00:27:08,680 --> 00:27:12,040 as you continue to blame shift the cables, you're going to keep 450 00:27:12,040 --> 00:27:16,400 recycling through more cables and losing more money and losing 451 00:27:16,400 --> 00:27:18,840 more time. But the solution to your problem 452 00:27:18,840 --> 00:27:20,960 isn't more cables. Different cables is actually 453 00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:22,840 really simple. You're just not plugging in. 454 00:27:23,360 --> 00:27:25,240 And this is true pretty much everywhere. 455 00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:27,520 This is true spiritually. So many people are like, well, 456 00:27:27,760 --> 00:27:31,080 you know, I tried Jesus, but Jesus isn't doing anything for 457 00:27:31,080 --> 00:27:32,600 me. He's not changing my life. 458 00:27:34,400 --> 00:27:35,800 Are you reading your Bible daily? 459 00:27:37,280 --> 00:27:38,720 Are you serving the church weekly? 460 00:27:38,920 --> 00:27:42,200 Are you praying regularly? Are you repenting of your sin? 461 00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:44,920 No. No wonder there's no power. 462 00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:48,880 You're not plugging in. It's not the cable, right? 463 00:27:48,880 --> 00:27:52,280 This is true relationally. So many spouses blame their 464 00:27:52,280 --> 00:27:54,640 spouses. I want a different husband. 465 00:27:55,120 --> 00:27:57,320 I want a different wife. I want a new one. 466 00:27:57,800 --> 00:28:01,240 I don't feel connected. Are you initiating deep 467 00:28:01,240 --> 00:28:03,640 conversation? Are you praying for your spouse? 468 00:28:03,920 --> 00:28:08,320 Are you encouraging your spouse? No, no wonder there's no power. 469 00:28:08,360 --> 00:28:12,960 You're not plugging in. You don't need a different 470 00:28:12,960 --> 00:28:16,280 cable. You just got to plug in, right? 471 00:28:16,280 --> 00:28:19,600 This is you don't get to not plug in and say, I don't feel 472 00:28:19,600 --> 00:28:21,600 connected, right? This is true with church 473 00:28:21,600 --> 00:28:23,680 community. You stop worshipping at church 474 00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:25,600 every Sunday. You stop going to community 475 00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:28,960 group, you stop pursuing people. Then you say, nobody in this 476 00:28:28,960 --> 00:28:35,080 church pursues me. You're you unplugged. 477 00:28:36,360 --> 00:28:38,000 Do you know what unplugging feels like? 478 00:28:39,040 --> 00:28:42,280 It's literally synonymous with feeling disconnected. 479 00:28:44,720 --> 00:28:46,720 You know why? Because you're not connected. 480 00:28:46,720 --> 00:28:48,640 Literally, right? What? 481 00:28:48,920 --> 00:28:53,840 Adam and Eve will do anything besides look at them and say, 482 00:28:54,120 --> 00:28:58,280 maybe I'm the problem, right? What should Adam have said? 483 00:28:58,520 --> 00:29:01,560 I think Adam probably should have said, you know, Adam, 484 00:29:01,560 --> 00:29:03,640 what'd you do? Well, you know, God called me to 485 00:29:03,640 --> 00:29:05,400 be a sacrificial leader for my family. 486 00:29:05,400 --> 00:29:09,240 That's clear in chapter 2. So maybe just freaking, maybe 487 00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:16,000 when a serpent slithered up to my bride and stuck his forked 488 00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:20,400 tongue in her ear and lied to her, maybe I shouldn't have let 489 00:29:20,400 --> 00:29:21,880 it happen and should have crushed him. 490 00:29:21,880 --> 00:29:26,280 Maybe Adam take responsibility. Instead, he blames Shifts. 491 00:29:26,280 --> 00:29:28,520 What is the woman you gave to me? 492 00:29:28,760 --> 00:29:31,920 Eve's also not innocent, right? Eve, what is this thing you have 493 00:29:31,920 --> 00:29:33,480 done? Eve should have said, you know, 494 00:29:33,480 --> 00:29:36,240 God gave me clear instructions in his word. 495 00:29:36,760 --> 00:29:39,360 It's actually really clear that that was the tree I wasn't 496 00:29:39,360 --> 00:29:43,720 supposed to eat out of. And so maybe I should have 497 00:29:43,720 --> 00:29:48,480 believed the one who created me rather than this creature who 498 00:29:48,480 --> 00:29:52,120 had yellow eyes. Maybe it's me. 499 00:29:53,480 --> 00:29:55,720 I nobody says this in our world anymore. 500 00:29:56,240 --> 00:30:00,600 Nobody says maybe it's me. We follow Adam and not Jesus and 501 00:30:00,600 --> 00:30:03,120 we say it's the woman you gave me God. 502 00:30:04,240 --> 00:30:09,080 We follow Eve and not Jesus and say, well, I was a serpent that 503 00:30:09,080 --> 00:30:13,080 you created. Rare are the women of faith and 504 00:30:13,080 --> 00:30:20,360 rare are the men of faith who say who say it's me, Hi, I'm the 505 00:30:20,360 --> 00:30:22,040 problem. It's me. 506 00:30:23,040 --> 00:30:27,280 It's rare. Maybe it's my heart. 507 00:30:29,240 --> 00:30:35,120 Maybe I unplugged from the Lord. Maybe I unplugged from the Word. 508 00:30:36,840 --> 00:30:38,680 Maybe I unplugged from the truth. 509 00:30:39,960 --> 00:30:42,320 Maybe I need a man up. Maybe I need to step up and take 510 00:30:42,320 --> 00:30:45,840 responsibility and repent rather than deflecting. 511 00:30:46,800 --> 00:30:50,080 Because if you do that, if you take responsibility for your 512 00:30:50,080 --> 00:30:55,280 spiritual life, your sin, your relationships, you will succeed 513 00:30:56,320 --> 00:31:00,280 in every area of your life as a Christian, as a leader, as a 514 00:31:00,280 --> 00:31:06,440 spouse, as a friend. Health naturally flows to those 515 00:31:06,440 --> 00:31:10,240 who take responsibility for themselves, and it naturally 516 00:31:10,240 --> 00:31:15,520 flows away from those who blame shift, taking responsibility, 517 00:31:15,880 --> 00:31:18,680 that's godly. But your sinful nature, it wants 518 00:31:18,680 --> 00:31:22,760 to, it wants to bully you into hiding and blame shifting. 519 00:31:25,320 --> 00:31:31,960 Don't do it. Crucify the flesh, mortify that 520 00:31:31,960 --> 00:31:34,760 impulse in you. It doesn't work even when it 521 00:31:34,760 --> 00:31:38,320 feels like working right? And there are times where you're 522 00:31:38,320 --> 00:31:40,440 like, I'm getting away with hiding this now. 523 00:31:40,480 --> 00:31:44,200 You aren't. It's, it's God's most severe 524 00:31:44,200 --> 00:31:47,160 judgment, and I don't say that lightly. 525 00:31:47,920 --> 00:31:51,520 It's God's most severe judgment to allow you to hide your sin. 526 00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:57,120 That's what Romans 1 teaches. He gives them up to their sinful 527 00:31:57,120 --> 00:31:58,640 desires. Yeah. 528 00:31:58,640 --> 00:32:00,240 You think you're hiding? OK, go for it. 529 00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:02,240 Have it. I'm getting away with it. 530 00:32:02,240 --> 00:32:03,640 No. That's the worst thing that 531 00:32:03,640 --> 00:32:08,440 could happen to you. There's no thought more damning 532 00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:11,760 than I think. I'm getting away with this. 533 00:32:13,880 --> 00:32:16,160 There's no getting away with anything in the eyes of the Lord 534 00:32:16,160 --> 00:32:18,200 Jesus Christ. You won't hide from him. 535 00:32:18,200 --> 00:32:22,480 You won't run from him. You won't escape him, you won't 536 00:32:22,480 --> 00:32:25,280 cover yourself up before him with fig leaves. 537 00:32:25,280 --> 00:32:29,280 You will not save yourself to present a more religiously 538 00:32:30,080 --> 00:32:33,240 informative, acceptable version of yourself. 539 00:32:34,200 --> 00:32:38,840 So why hide? We can answer that question 540 00:32:38,840 --> 00:32:40,400 textually. Why blame shift? 541 00:32:40,400 --> 00:32:43,200 Why hide? I think it's in verse 9 and this 542 00:32:43,200 --> 00:32:46,240 is so stunningly psychologically accurate it's actually insane. 543 00:32:46,520 --> 00:32:48,920 Verse 9, the Lord God called the man and said to him, where are 544 00:32:48,920 --> 00:32:53,200 you or why are you hiding would be an accurate parallel. 545 00:32:53,640 --> 00:32:56,560 And Adam said, well I heard the sound of you in the garden and I 546 00:32:56,560 --> 00:33:05,720 was I was afraid. Fear is why we hide. 547 00:33:05,720 --> 00:33:09,440 Fear is why we blame shift. Every time we royally screw up, 548 00:33:09,440 --> 00:33:11,440 we have one of two choices we can make. 549 00:33:11,440 --> 00:33:14,440 That's it. Fear or faith? 550 00:33:17,600 --> 00:33:19,080 Oh man, that's pretty oversimplified. 551 00:33:19,080 --> 00:33:20,680 I think life is more nuanced than that. 552 00:33:20,680 --> 00:33:24,320 No it's not. Those are the two options you 553 00:33:24,320 --> 00:33:30,080 have, fear or faith, and what nobody tells you is that fear 554 00:33:30,080 --> 00:33:34,520 and faith, They both demand you to believe in something that you 555 00:33:34,520 --> 00:33:37,960 can't see. Both of them. 556 00:33:39,480 --> 00:33:46,160 Both of them require trust. You've thought about that. 557 00:33:46,160 --> 00:33:49,760 Fear and faith both demand you to believe in something that you 558 00:33:49,760 --> 00:33:53,680 cannot see. Fear says, Well, if God finds 559 00:33:53,680 --> 00:33:55,800 out what you did, he'll crush you. 560 00:33:56,760 --> 00:33:58,600 He'll strike you with lightning bolts. 561 00:33:58,600 --> 00:34:02,320 He'll hate you forever. If people find out who I really 562 00:34:02,320 --> 00:34:07,000 am, I'll be isolated and alone the rest of my life. 563 00:34:08,840 --> 00:34:12,760 You can't see that. That's a form of trust, right? 564 00:34:12,760 --> 00:34:16,280 Faith says if God finds out what you did, let's be honest, he 565 00:34:16,280 --> 00:34:18,159 already knows. He'll forgive you. 566 00:34:18,400 --> 00:34:20,679 He'll cover you. Yeah, there will probably be 567 00:34:20,679 --> 00:34:22,440 consequences, but he'll love you. 568 00:34:23,040 --> 00:34:25,520 That's also believing in something that you can't see. 569 00:34:25,520 --> 00:34:27,000 Which one are you going to do, fear or faith? 570 00:34:32,560 --> 00:34:34,679 I think this is this is going to sound kind of silly, but I 571 00:34:34,679 --> 00:34:38,239 actually think it's a really important story This week. 572 00:34:38,239 --> 00:34:40,199 I was texting my dad back and forth. 573 00:34:40,440 --> 00:34:41,920 We were texting about stuff I didn't. 574 00:34:41,920 --> 00:34:43,760 We were just texting back and forth about baseball. 575 00:34:43,800 --> 00:34:47,760 You know, the Yankees, the Mariners, Mike Trout hitting 576 00:34:47,760 --> 00:34:49,679 five harm runs in four games, which is crazy. 577 00:34:49,679 --> 00:34:51,080 We're just talking like there's just nothing. 578 00:34:51,080 --> 00:34:54,080 We were just texting back and forth about baseball. 579 00:34:54,880 --> 00:34:58,600 And suddenly my dad started texting me and my phone started 580 00:34:58,600 --> 00:35:00,320 blowing up. And I looked at the text 581 00:35:00,320 --> 00:35:03,360 messages that were rolling in and the text message I was 582 00:35:03,360 --> 00:35:07,720 getting from my dad's phones. It literally said bubble one 583 00:35:08,080 --> 00:35:20,760 you're a loser bubble 2 nobody likes you bubble three dork 584 00:35:21,880 --> 00:35:24,240 bubble 4 not going to say it at church. 585 00:35:27,840 --> 00:35:30,800 How would you feel if you got that text message from your dad 586 00:35:30,800 --> 00:35:36,080 or a loved one? I would imagine if if if 587 00:35:36,080 --> 00:35:39,160 somebody you loved or your dad told you that you were a loser 588 00:35:40,240 --> 00:35:43,520 and that nobody liked you and that you were a dork, I would 589 00:35:43,520 --> 00:35:48,360 imagine that would cut right. That hurt a little bit. 590 00:35:50,360 --> 00:35:54,560 It didn't hurt me though. You know why? 591 00:35:54,600 --> 00:35:59,320 It didn't hurt me. It didn't hurt me because I know 592 00:35:59,320 --> 00:36:05,280 my dad. I know his character and it was 593 00:36:05,280 --> 00:36:09,280 voice. I've made a treasure chest in my 594 00:36:09,280 --> 00:36:12,920 heart of the things that he said to me like I love you and I'm 595 00:36:12,920 --> 00:36:15,080 proud of you and I think you're doing a great job, buddy. 596 00:36:16,080 --> 00:36:21,160 And so when those text messages came in, I didn't have to walk 597 00:36:21,160 --> 00:36:25,320 around wondering, oh, does my dad think I'm a loser? 598 00:36:25,960 --> 00:36:28,600 Am IA loser? I, I, it didn't hurt me. 599 00:36:30,080 --> 00:36:32,400 I knew it. I know my dad's character, and 600 00:36:32,400 --> 00:36:34,280 you know why? You also know why it didn't hurt 601 00:36:34,400 --> 00:36:35,600 me. It also didn't hurt me because I 602 00:36:35,600 --> 00:36:38,160 knew my big sister was hanging out with my dad that day. 603 00:36:41,960 --> 00:36:44,520 And our love language is making fun of each other. 604 00:36:45,120 --> 00:36:47,680 And if you think those texts are brutal, you should see the reels 605 00:36:47,680 --> 00:36:51,120 we share with each other. And so when I got those text 606 00:36:51,120 --> 00:36:55,000 messages in my head, I wasn't like, oh, no, my dad hates me 607 00:36:55,000 --> 00:36:57,080 and he thinks I'm a loser and he thinks nobody likes me. 608 00:36:57,280 --> 00:36:59,840 I got that text message and I was like, oh, Brooke stole his 609 00:36:59,840 --> 00:37:03,400 phone. She's 411, has a big mouth. 610 00:37:03,440 --> 00:37:06,080 Of course she's talking smack right now, right? 611 00:37:06,120 --> 00:37:10,240 Immediately I knew that. I knew it wasn't my dad's voice. 612 00:37:10,520 --> 00:37:13,080 And the reason why I'm drawing a lot of attention to this, the 613 00:37:13,080 --> 00:37:16,360 reason why I'm bringing a lot of your attention to this is, is 614 00:37:16,360 --> 00:37:20,200 because of a really simple but really important recognition. 615 00:37:20,520 --> 00:37:24,560 And here's what I'm getting at. Both God and the enemy can speak 616 00:37:24,560 --> 00:37:29,400 to you through the same phone number, your conscience, the 617 00:37:29,400 --> 00:37:35,080 same event, the same sin. One voice encourages faith, 618 00:37:36,400 --> 00:37:39,680 trust me, come to me, repent, I'll forgive. 619 00:37:40,440 --> 00:37:43,640 The other voice encourages fear. That's the enemy. 620 00:37:43,920 --> 00:37:45,880 You're a loser, nobody likes you. 621 00:37:46,160 --> 00:37:49,080 Hide this. And so when you sin, you're 622 00:37:49,080 --> 00:37:52,160 going to hear 2 voices. One says you're a loser, nobody 623 00:37:52,160 --> 00:37:54,120 likes you, if God finds out we did, he's going to hate you. 624 00:37:54,120 --> 00:37:56,840 And the other one says, repent and turn to me, and I'll forgive 625 00:37:56,840 --> 00:37:59,920 you and clothe you and love you. They both can come to you 626 00:37:59,920 --> 00:38:03,720 through the same phone number, through the same event, by 627 00:38:03,720 --> 00:38:07,960 looking at the same sin. Do you know your Father's voice? 628 00:38:07,960 --> 00:38:11,160 Do you know the truths of Scripture? 629 00:38:11,800 --> 00:38:14,800 Do you know which one is from Jesus and which one is from the 630 00:38:14,800 --> 00:38:17,560 enemy? If both fear and faith demand 631 00:38:17,560 --> 00:38:21,800 you to believe in something you can't see, which voice did you 632 00:38:21,800 --> 00:38:25,280 believe? Fear or faith? 633 00:38:26,640 --> 00:38:31,400 And the answer is really simple. Whichever 1 is in line with the 634 00:38:31,400 --> 00:38:34,200 character of Jesus according to the Bible. 635 00:38:35,600 --> 00:38:38,040 And So what does the Bible say Jesus's voice is like? 636 00:38:38,040 --> 00:38:39,920 What does the Bible say Jesus is like? 637 00:38:39,920 --> 00:38:48,760 When we sin, Jesus biblically is the voice that clothes, not the 638 00:38:48,760 --> 00:38:52,040 voice that shames. Let me say that again. 639 00:38:53,160 --> 00:38:59,760 Jesus is the voice that clothes, not the voice that shames like, 640 00:38:59,760 --> 00:39:01,120 did you? This is phenomenal. 641 00:39:01,120 --> 00:39:04,000 Did you know? Did you know that the Gospels 642 00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:07,240 record that when Jesus was crucified, he was stripped of 643 00:39:07,240 --> 00:39:09,400 his robe and crucified naked? Did you know that? 644 00:39:09,920 --> 00:39:13,160 Why? Why would it include that 645 00:39:13,160 --> 00:39:18,560 detail? Well, because Jesus didn't die 646 00:39:18,560 --> 00:39:20,800 so that he could offer you fig leaves. 647 00:39:22,640 --> 00:39:25,040 Do you know, fig leaves are when they get dry, they're really 648 00:39:25,040 --> 00:39:27,760 brittle. They crumble really easily. 649 00:39:28,640 --> 00:39:31,560 Jesus didn't die to give you something that crumbles really 650 00:39:31,560 --> 00:39:33,680 easily. He didn't give you little leaves 651 00:39:33,880 --> 00:39:36,480 that don't really cover the shame that it's covering. 652 00:39:37,040 --> 00:39:40,320 And so the gospel, it doesn't offer some like naive brittle 653 00:39:40,320 --> 00:39:42,680 little hope. You know, sometimes we all screw 654 00:39:42,680 --> 00:39:45,960 up. So don't worry about it, or at 655 00:39:45,960 --> 00:39:48,480 least try not to worry about it. That's so brittle. 656 00:39:50,640 --> 00:39:54,400 So why the Gospels record that when Jesus was crucified, he was 657 00:39:54,400 --> 00:39:57,240 stripped of his robe and crucified naked? 658 00:39:57,680 --> 00:40:00,400 Because he had to be. Because in that moment he was 659 00:40:00,400 --> 00:40:05,840 substituting himself for naked and ashamed Adam and Eve, naked 660 00:40:05,840 --> 00:40:08,400 and ashamed Cold Ike, Naked and ashamed you. 661 00:40:09,280 --> 00:40:12,120 So that when he, Jesus, was crucified, he was crucified 662 00:40:12,120 --> 00:40:15,160 naked and bore their shame on that cross. 663 00:40:15,320 --> 00:40:19,360 He became a real substitution for every human being, every 664 00:40:19,360 --> 00:40:22,520 Adam, every Eve who sends. So you know why the Gospels 665 00:40:22,520 --> 00:40:24,720 record that when Jesus was crucified, he was stripped of 666 00:40:24,720 --> 00:40:27,760 his robe and crucified naked? Not for fig leaves. 667 00:40:28,240 --> 00:40:32,200 He was stripped of his robe so that you could wear his robe. 668 00:40:34,040 --> 00:40:38,480 That's why he didn't want to give you fig leaves. 669 00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:45,240 Who wants to give you his robe? Why would we ever say yes to fig 670 00:40:45,240 --> 00:40:49,960 leaves and no to a robe? Right to misquote CS Lewis on 671 00:40:49,960 --> 00:40:52,720 purpose. When we hide, we're like half 672 00:40:52,720 --> 00:40:56,360 hearted children who continue to sew together fig leaves for 673 00:40:56,360 --> 00:41:00,560 clothing because we're too ignorant to understand what silk 674 00:41:00,560 --> 00:41:03,560 and cashmere and a robe is when it's offered to us. 675 00:41:05,240 --> 00:41:06,960 I'll take blame shifting. I'll take hiding. 676 00:41:06,960 --> 00:41:13,200 I'll take the fig leaves, dude, cashmere robe, righteousness of 677 00:41:13,440 --> 00:41:17,080 Jesus, his perfection, his achievements. 678 00:41:17,240 --> 00:41:20,400 Why would you say yes to fig leaves to that? 679 00:41:20,760 --> 00:41:24,720 Because by grace, through faith in Jesus alone, his robe is 680 00:41:24,720 --> 00:41:29,160 given to you so that when God looks at you, he doesn't see 681 00:41:29,160 --> 00:41:31,640 your nakedness. He didn't see your shame, He 682 00:41:31,640 --> 00:41:34,840 didn't see your sins. He doesn't see your mistakes, He 683 00:41:34,840 --> 00:41:40,400 doesn't see your errors. When Jesus looks at you, he sees 684 00:41:40,640 --> 00:41:45,640 the righteous robe of Christ. Do you know how that makes God 685 00:41:45,640 --> 00:41:48,080 feel? Happy. 686 00:41:49,520 --> 00:41:55,880 Well, pleased over the moon, intoxicated with affection, 687 00:41:56,600 --> 00:42:00,800 zealously singing over you. So I hope you see how the gospel 688 00:42:00,800 --> 00:42:05,040 speaks to this text, right? There's only one human being in 689 00:42:05,040 --> 00:42:07,960 the history of the universe who's never blame shifted. 690 00:42:08,840 --> 00:42:11,400 It's not you, it's not me, it's Jesus. 691 00:42:12,280 --> 00:42:16,280 It's actually pretty amazing. Adam sins and what does he do? 692 00:42:16,440 --> 00:42:18,160 What does he do? He blames his wife. 693 00:42:19,360 --> 00:42:21,480 Jesus doesn't sin, and what does he do? 694 00:42:22,040 --> 00:42:25,880 He takes the blame of his wife, the church, upon himself to make 695 00:42:25,880 --> 00:42:29,720 her innocent. Does exactly the opposite of 696 00:42:29,720 --> 00:42:34,200 what Adam does. So there isn't a safer place in 697 00:42:34,200 --> 00:42:40,520 the universe to run to when you screw up than Jesus? 698 00:42:41,880 --> 00:42:43,840 You ever read the songs where it's like you God, you're my 699 00:42:43,840 --> 00:42:47,200 rock and in you I hide myself. Do you know what that means? 700 00:42:48,080 --> 00:42:51,720 It means you should hide yourself in Christ and not 701 00:42:51,720 --> 00:42:56,200 excuses or blame shifting or religious performance ISM. 702 00:42:56,360 --> 00:42:58,240 It means Jesus is enough to hide you. 703 00:42:59,200 --> 00:43:03,080 So when you send, not if, when you send, say no to fear. 704 00:43:03,920 --> 00:43:07,120 Fear will have you sewing fig leaves together for the rest of 705 00:43:07,120 --> 00:43:10,160 your life, hiding and covering and blame shifting and living in 706 00:43:10,160 --> 00:43:13,520 the misery of fig fatigue. Say no to fear. 707 00:43:13,680 --> 00:43:16,360 Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid of stuff. 708 00:43:16,360 --> 00:43:19,080 Don't be afraid of people. Don't be afraid of the judgment 709 00:43:19,080 --> 00:43:20,880 of others. Don't be afraid of being found 710 00:43:20,880 --> 00:43:22,880 out. Be afraid of faith. 711 00:43:24,280 --> 00:43:27,520 Say yes to the voice of faith. Run immediately because of the 712 00:43:27,520 --> 00:43:30,400 grace of Jesus. Run right away to God. 713 00:43:31,160 --> 00:43:34,760 Confess, repent, receive forgiveness. 714 00:43:35,360 --> 00:43:40,920 Collapse into his arms as the hymn O, Come to the Altar says, 715 00:43:41,920 --> 00:43:46,360 Come to the altar. The Father's arms are open wide. 716 00:43:47,000 --> 00:43:52,040 Forgiveness was bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. 717 00:43:52,600 --> 00:43:55,440 That's what you should do that that would actually be a great 718 00:43:55,440 --> 00:44:01,120 song to sing this morning will do You know it, you've heard it. 719 00:44:01,400 --> 00:44:02,040 Cool. Let me pray. 720 00:44:03,120 --> 00:44:06,520 Heavenly Father, I pray that we wouldn't just sing it, but that 721 00:44:06,520 --> 00:44:10,000 we would do it that we would come to the altar because the 722 00:44:10,000 --> 00:44:12,760 Father's arms are open wide. Why? 723 00:44:13,560 --> 00:44:17,400 Because forgiveness was bought with the precious blood of of 724 00:44:17,480 --> 00:44:20,600 Jesus Christ. I pray our church wouldn't be a 725 00:44:20,600 --> 00:44:23,640 church that hides, wouldn't be a church that performs, but 726 00:44:23,640 --> 00:44:29,600 instead would be transparent and honest and would be the happy 727 00:44:29,600 --> 00:44:33,600 recipient of the grace that we say we believe in and we preach 728 00:44:33,600 --> 00:44:36,240 about. And so for those who need 729 00:44:36,240 --> 00:44:38,720 conviction, convict, For those who need comfort, comfort, 730 00:44:39,800 --> 00:44:43,640 there's there's clothing available to us. 731 00:44:47,760 --> 00:44:51,040 It's not fig leaves, it's a robe. 732 00:44:52,640 --> 00:44:57,120 And the only thing that gets that robe off the hangar and 733 00:44:57,120 --> 00:45:02,440 onto our shoulders is faith. If you don't know Jesus, I don't 734 00:45:02,440 --> 00:45:06,360 know how you plan on dealing with your shame and your guilt 735 00:45:06,360 --> 00:45:09,640 for the rest of your life. I imagine it will exhaust you. 736 00:45:11,440 --> 00:45:15,600 And so run the Jesus, believe in the Gospel, and receive that 737 00:45:15,600 --> 00:45:18,040 righteous robe of Jesus Christ, and become a new woman and 738 00:45:18,040 --> 00:45:20,600 become a new man. So it's in the precious name of 739 00:45:20,640 --> 00:45:22,040 Jesus that all God's people prayed. 740 00:45:23,400 --> 00:45:23,560 Amen.