Text:\u00a0 Genesis 3: 8-15<\/p>\n
8 <\/sup><\/em>Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 <\/sup>But the Lord God called to the man, \u201cWhere are you?\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n 10 <\/sup><\/em>He answered, \u201cI heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n 11 <\/sup><\/em>And he said, \u201cWho told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n 12 <\/sup><\/em>The man said, \u201cThe woman you put here with me\u2014she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n 13 <\/sup><\/em>Then the Lord God said to the woman, \u201cWhat is this you have done?\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n The woman said, \u201cThe serpent deceived me, and I ate.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n 14 <\/sup><\/em>So the Lord God said to the serpent, 15<\/sup>And I will put enmity With the advent of cell phones we can make a call to most any place if someone is willing to answer there.\u00a0 Hopefully not in church this morning.\u00a0 But it makes for an interesting or strange start to some conversations.\u00a0 Maybe you hear loud music or voices.\u00a0 Or maybe a sound you might hear in a rest room.\u00a0 Where are you?<\/em> you wonder Where are you, we might even ask.<\/p>\n But sometimes that question comes with a far more serious concern.\u00a0 A father calls his daughter who is out way past the time she said she would come in.\u00a0 You hear disturbing rumors about a close friend who has fallen off the radar of your life.\u00a0 Where are you?<\/em> you ask them.<\/p>\n Today our Lord asks that question of two people who have made a terrible choice in their lives. \u00a0In fact, we are still living in it\u2019s deadly aftermath.\u00a0 Where are you<\/em>, he asks them.<\/p>\n And make no mistake.\u00a0 This question was not for God\u2019s benefit.\u00a0 The Lord was not wondering where Adam could be.\u00a0 He knew.\u00a0 That question was for Adam and Eve.\u00a0 They needed to know.\u00a0 They needed to recognize where they were.\u00a0 They needed to see clearly the terrible distance their choice put between them and their loving Creator.\u00a0 So God called out.\u00a0 Where are you?<\/em><\/p>\n Well this is not just a study in Bible history.\u00a0 God\u2019s question is also for you and me this morning.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere are You?\u201d<\/strong> Adam and Eve. A man and his wife.\u00a0 We can relate to that.\u00a0 But after that we can only imagine.\u00a0 Two people literally made for each other and created in the image of God.\u00a0 Every thought and desire was in sync with God.\u00a0 Their love for God and each other was pure, undefiled.\u00a0 And a truly perfect place to live, full of beauty.<\/p>\n But then came that choice they made. \u00a0The devil who is real came to them as a serpent.\u00a0 You remember the command God gave them.\u00a0 Don\u2019t eat from that tree.\u00a0 To obey that command was to worship God.\u00a0 To disobey was to die.\u00a0 What\u2019s death<\/em>, they might have wondered.<\/p>\n The devil tempted them like he tempts us.\u00a0 You won\u2019t die. C\u2019mon God is holding back on you.\u00a0 You will be like Him.\u00a0 And Eve did the talking but Adam was there not being a very good husband.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 Suddenly what they never would have considered looked pretty good.\u00a0 They made a choice like some of the choices we make.\u00a0 They seem so small and harmless.\u00a0 The little lie, the click over to a porn site, the gossip.\u00a0 But you know those games where you have a tower of pieces.\u00a0 Each turn you take one.\u00a0 What happens if you take the wrong one?\u00a0 The whole tower comes down.\u00a0 That\u2019s the nature of sin.<\/p>\n 8 <\/sup>Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. <\/span>9 <\/sup>But the Lord God called to the man, \u201cWhere are you?<\/span>\u201d<\/p>\n 10 <\/sup>He answered, \u201cI heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid<\/span>.\u201d\u00a0 What a tragedy!.\u00a0 Innocence became guilt and shame.\u00a0 Trust in their loving Creator turned to fear.\u00a0 That\u2019s the nature of sin.\u00a0 We find ourselves hiding from God.\u00a0 It becomes harder to pray.\u00a0 The thought of God\u2019s presence is not very comforting.\u00a0 Rather it troubles us. \u00a0\u00a0Is that where you are today?\u00a0 Hiding from God and your choices? <\/strong>The Lord calls out to each of us, Where are you? <\/strong><\/p>\n Our first parents didn\u2019t make things any better now.\u00a0 They come out from the bushes.\u00a0 But they still are hiding.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Where are you, Adam?\u00a0 Where are you Eve? The Lord even helps them to see.\u00a0 11 <\/sup>And he said, \u201cWho told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from<\/span>?\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s what God\u2019s Word does for us if we are open to it. It reveals what we have put between us and the Lord.\u00a0 Where are you?\u00a0 Have you?\u00a0 Did you? We need to listen to this Word, and stop hiding.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s not what our first parents now do.\u00a0 They hide behind something else.\u00a0\u00a0 12 <\/sup>The man said, \u201cThe woman you put here with me\u2014she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.<\/span>\u201d<\/p>\n 13 <\/sup>Then the Lord God said to the woman, \u201cWhat is this you have done?\u201d The woman said, \u201cThe serpent deceived me, and I ate.<\/span>\u201d\u00a0 They come out from the bushes only to hide behind their excuses and blame.\u00a0 They blame everyone but themselves for their choices.\u00a0 Sound familiar? It\u2019s not my fault.\u00a0 Look what you made me do<\/em>.\u00a0 We live in a world where no one is at fault.\u00a0 At least, not me.\u00a0 So where are you, the Lord calls out to us.\u00a0 And not to condemn us, not to cut us down at the knees. \u00a0But to save us.\u00a0 To help us see our desperate need for what only he can give.<\/p>\n The problem is if you\u2019re hiding, it\u2019s kind of hard to see that.\u00a0 Think about it. Hiding behind that finger of blame, that shallow excuse, does nothing for your marriage or friendship.\u00a0 It brings no change, no chance to reconcile.\u00a0 And it does nothing for your relationship with God.\u00a0 So listen to the Lord here\u00a0 Where are you?<\/strong> Don\u2019t hide.\u00a0 Rather come out of your hiding place and experience what God has done<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Satan had tempted Adam and Eve.\u00a0 Their hearts were now poisoned with sin. They gave birth to children with hearts poisoned with sin.\u00a0 Children who would grow up in a world with prisons, war, violence and disease. \u00a0A place where many children don\u2019t even get to be born.\u00a0 They are killed in a place called Planned Parenthood. \u00a0And those that are born face born faces this certainty. We die.<\/p>\n It seems like Satan succeeded, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 He ruined us with sin.\u00a0 If he wasn\u2019t a serpent, at that moment he might have pounded his chest.\u00a0 But not so fast.\u00a0 \u00a0How do snakes get around?\u00a0 They crawl on their bellies.\u00a0 There was a time when they didn\u2019t.\u00a0 What\u2019s happened? \u00a0\u00a014 <\/sup>So the Lord God said to the serpent, \u201cBecause you have done this, \u201cCursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.<\/span> That snake crawling along is a picture of what God would do.<\/p>\n Ever watch a wrestling match?\u00a0 What\u2019s a reversal?\u00a0\u00a0 When the apparent winner ends up on the bottom.\u00a0 That\u2019s Satan, the one who deceives us, even now.\u00a0 But what did God hold out to Adam and Eve?\u00a0 Hope.\u00a0 Hope in someone to come.\u00a0 Hope in what he would do. What a gracious God we have! \u00a0Listen.\u00a0\u00a0 15<\/sup>And I will put enmity\u00a0 between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.\u201d<\/span> We call this the first gospel promise.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t very much, nothing about a child in a manger or a Savior on a cross.\u00a0 But it gave them enough to cling to.\u00a0 It offered these and other fearful guilty sinners, hope.<\/p>\n So where are you?\u00a0 We know where Adam and Eve were.\u00a0 But what about you and me?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it time to come out of our \u00a0hiding place?\u00a0 We do that when we confess our sins and repent.\u00a0 When we confess from our hearts and hold nothing held back.\u00a0 No excuses.\u00a0 No blaming others for our problems. \u00a0\u00a0We stop hiding.<\/p>\n And why can we come out?\u00a0 Look what God has done!<\/strong> Think about what John wrote in his first epistle: \u00a0The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil\u2019s work. (1John 3:8)<\/span> We know Satan\u2019s work\u00a0 The devil \u00a0made us slaves.\u00a0 Slaves to sin, slave to guilt and slaves to death.\u00a0 But what a friend we have in Jesus!\u00a0 The Son of God was born to Mary, a distant daughter of Eve, just as God promised.\u00a0 Then He won our freedom.\u00a0 His life lived for you, his life given on a cross for you is all about that freedom.\u00a0 A Freedom from fear, from guilt, from death. \u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s about a man sitting in a hospital bed able to say to say to me last week, when the Lord is ready, I am ready.<\/em> It\u2019s about getting up in the morning and saying in your heart wherever I go today, I want to serve Christ.<\/em> It\u2019s about saying to my guilty conscience, \u00a0I am baptized into Christ and so I am forgiven.\u00a0 It\u2019s about being able to say when I feel worthless, No I am a child of God who loves me so much he sent his Son to die for me.<\/p>\n So God calls out to you today, where are you?<\/em> Stop hiding.\u00a0 Come out.\u00a0 Repent and experience the love of God in Christ.\u00a0 Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Text:\u00a0 Genesis 3: 8-15 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, \u201cWhere are you?\u201d 10 He answered, \u201cI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":337,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336\/revisions\/337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n“Because you have done this,
\n<\/em>\u201cCursed are you above all the livestock
\n<\/em>and all the wild animals!
\n<\/span>You will crawl on your belly
\n<\/span>and you will eat dust
\n<\/span>all the days of your life.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nbetween you and the woman,
\nand between your offspring and hers;
\nhe will crush your head,
\nand you will strike his heel.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n
\nI.\u00a0 Hiding from God and your choices?
\nII.\u00a0 Come out and experience what God has done<\/p>\n