Genesis Chapter 1… verses 26-27… Now let’s move to Chapter 2 into 3:13… then verse 20…
Let’s Pray…
Have you ever thought what it must have been like to be the first and only person on earth?
You know… its one thing for us to feel lonely… but… in Adams case there was no one else… He missed much of what makes us… who we are…
He had no childhood… no parents… [as we know parents]… no family or friends… He had to learn to be human on his own…
Fortunately though… God didn’t let him struggle to long… He didn’t let him struggle to long… before presenting him with an ideal companion and mate… Eve… in our case… thank you ladies…
At the outset they had a complete… innocent… and open oneness… with out a hint of shame…
Have you ever been in a family gathering when a young child runs through the room unclothed without a hint of shame… the innocence of the child…
Oh how that speaks to us of how it was and could be… [not that we run around naked… but that we are without shame… and transparent before each other…]
Maybe one of Adams first conversions with his delightful companion would have been about garden rules…
We know… that before Eve came along… God had given Adam complete freedom in the garden… with the responsibility to tend and care for it…
But… one tree was off limits… the tree of the knowledge of good and evil… No doubt… Adam told her all about this…
We know very little about Eve… the first woman in the world… yet… she is the mother of us all… She was the final piece in the intricate and amazing puzzle of God’s creation…
Adam… now had another human being to fellowship with… someone with an equal share in God’s image…
Here… was someone alike enough for companionship… yet… now hear this… different enough for relationship…Together they were Greater than they could ever be Alone…
What an incredible truth for us to take in this morning… Together we can become something bigger than we ever can become alone…
Fantastic….
We know how the story goes…
Eve was approached by Satan in the Garden where she and Adam lived… and he questioned her contentment… How did he do this…
He implied… how could you be happy when you’re not allowed to eat from one of the tree’s…
Satan… helped Eve switch her focus… switch her focus from what she could do and what she had…
He moved her focus from all that God had done and given… to the one thing he withheld… sadly… Eve willing accepted Satan’s viewpoint without checking it out with God… or Adam…
Does that sound familiar or what?
How often is our attention drawn from the much which is ours… to the little that isn’t…?
We can sometimes get that… ‘I have to have it’ feeling… in many ways Eve was typical of us all… Our desires like Eves can easily be manipulated… if we’re not careful…
Can you see this…
Truly… we need to keep God in our decision making processes… His word… this book is our guidebook to life’s choices and decisions…
Our relationship with God… Jesus… and the Holy Spirit should always be the contentment of our lives… God’s word… it should always be there with us… so that we learn the lessons of Life…
OK then… let me give us some life lessons from Adam and Eve…
In Genesis 1 verse 26-27 we read…[Read Genesis 1:26-27….]
Lesson 1: As Adam and Eves Descendants we all in some way reflect the Image of our God.
Please… take hold of this truth… God loves us… he loves us so much that he made us in his image… his likeness… so that we would and could reflect his image to others…
That which was spoilt in the garden and damaged by sin… God put right in his Son Jesus… he brought all mankind back to himself… in that the gave his son Jesus to pay the penalty of sin…
That disease which was damaging Gods likeness and image in us…
In what ways are we made in God’s image?
I suggest to us this morning that we display Gods image in our creativity… our reasoning… our speech and our determination…
It is our entire self that reflects God… We can never be God… but… we can be like him… we can… reflect his likeness in and through our lives…
God showed himself to us in his Son… Each of us this morning are becoming like his Son… we are becoming more Christ like…
We can and do reflect God and Jesus in us through our Character… Our Love for God and others…
Our Patience… Forgiveness… Kindness… our Faithfulness… our Humility… our Generosity… Can you see this…
You’ve heard people say no doubt … Oh he/she are such a Godly man woman…
Notice… God made Man and Woman in his image…
Neither man nor Woman is made more in his image than the other… From the beginning… the bible places man and woman at the pinnacle of Gods creation…
Hear this Today… God wants to reflect his image and likeness in you… he does that as you and I become more like his Son… Jesus…
Lesson 2: Sin Spreads
Satan here… tried to make Eve think that sin is good… pleasant… and desirable… and I suppose knowledge of good and evil seemed harmless enough to her… but… its root was disobedience…
In our lives also… we can often choose wrong things… choose wrong things because we become convinced that they are good… pleasant… desirable…
Pleasant and attractive sins are hardest to avoid… they don’t always look ugly…
But… God’s word tells us to prepare ourselves… we can’t always prevent temptation… but hear this… we can always find an escape…I Corinthians 10:13 says…
We have to use God’s word… God’s people to help us stand…
Notice what Eve did… She Looked… She Took… She Ate… then She Gave… She Passed it on…
One of the realities of Sin is this… it Spreads… Eve involved someone else in her wrongdoing…
I put it to us… that can so easily be the case for us… by involving someone else… we relieve our own guilt…
Sin when left unchecked spreads… The bible clearly shows that to us…
The worst step we can take is to eliminate the guilty feeling without eliminating the cause…
It would be a bit like taking a pain killer for your rotten tooth with out taking the rotten tooth out… if we don’t remove the tooth… the pain comes back… but it comes back worse than before…
Left uncheck sin will spread… Adam and Eve show us this lesson…
Lesson 3: We cannot Hide from God
Read Genesis 3:9-10…
Hear… we have the first recorded game of Hide and Seek!!!
But… seriously how true it can be of us… when things happen… we think we can hide it from God…
But… our God is an omnipresent God… he is with us wherever we are… whatever we are doing…
Our God loves us unconditionally…
But… Our natural fear leads us to think that when we mess up… we don’t deserve his Love… let me say… Gods love isn’t dependent on us… and what we do… because if it where we’d all fail…
It’s about Jesus… [don’t try and hide in the garden]… bring it all to Jesus… He is our Saviour… he is the one who shed his blood for our sin and wrongdoing…
Understand this… God loves us regardless of our faults… There is nothing we can do to make God love us more and there is nothing we can do to make God love us less…
Adam and Eve show us this lesson… We can’t hide from God…
Oh and by the way… he doesn’t want you to either…
And finally for this morning…
Lesson 4: When Confronted don’t Blame Others
Read Genesis 3:11-13….
Notice… in both cases… their answers involved someone else… they both tried to deflect their fault to someone else…
Ever done that… No… Me… never…
How easy it is to excuse our wrongs by blaming someone else… or blaming a circumstance…
I’ll let you into a secret… God knows the truth anyway…
Another life lesson we can learn this morning is the need for us to stand up and face the consequences of our own actions…
it was him… no it wasn’t... it was you… he made me do it… no I didn’t... you made me do it…
In closing… Adam and Eve represent so much to us as we seek to learn from their experiences…
This morning we’ve only looked at a few…
1: We are made in Gods Image and Likeness… faults and all…
God through the presence of Jesus in our lives is helping us to become… Never forget we reflect the very presence of God through our lives… Jesus said…we are the light and salt…
2: Sin Spreads
Adam and Eve show us that from one act of disobedience the rest of the world was infected…
3: We can’t Hide from God
Never try and hide in the Garden of Life… meet with the Father instead…
4: When Confronted don’t blame others
Without doubt Jesus took it on the chin… Stephen when facing the stones of hatred… said simply this Father Do not hold this sin against them…
He didn’t try to deflect the reasons for his actions towards any other…
We serve a wonderful God who loves us muchly… more than we can ever think or imagine… his word presents to us People… Characters… Situations… Commands that are there to propel us into a life of fullness and joy…
Hear me today… Don’t allow the suggestions and the trickery of the serpent to get you out of joy and peace… because the joy of the Lord is our strength…
I close with the word of the Apostle Paul… 2 Cor 10:3-5
For though we live in the world… we do not wage war as the world does… The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world… On the contrary… they have divine power to demolish strongholds… we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God… and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ…
If nothing else this morning… realise this… Adam and Eve show us that disobedience to the word of God is not the way…
Listening to arguments against Gods word is not the way… allowing suggestions and thoughts to exalt themselves above God is not the way…
Our biggest life lesson from the story of Adam and Eve is simply this… Obedience will keep you in the Garden…
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