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You may have heard that we had a
baby on Thursday morning. She’s perfect
in every way, of course, 6 lbs and 10 oz of wonder and joy. She is already spoiled rotten, and she’s only
a few days old. New life is an amazing
thing, and I have no idea how anyone could witness the birth of a child and not
believe in God. I am, admittedly, a bit
biased on the subject.
When we look at Danielle’s life,
her needs are fairly simple. She gets
hungry sometimes, and when she cries, she is fed. At times, she needs to have a diaper changed,
and if that isn’t done quickly enough, she lets us know. She also gets tired, and she’ll get cranky if
she doesn’t get her sleep. Finally, she
needs to be loved upon, and that we’re pretty good at doing. Other than that, she doesn’t have many needs,
and when all of these are met, she rests contently, trusting in her parents to
care for her.
Now, I know that her needs will not
always be this simple. As she grows,
life will become more and more complicated.
There will be many, many conversations down the road where we talk about
the difference between a want and a need.
I can almost envision the time when she comes to me and asks for a cell
phone because all her friends have one.
I like to pretend she’ll be much older than she really will be when that
happens.
Today, as we’re talking about sin,
I want us all to take a moment to think about the difference between a want and
a need. It’s not nearly as simple as we
like to pretend it might be. For
example, are we talking about what we need merely to survive, or to live
comfortably in society? In one case, we
might see clothes as a need, while in another, they might simply be a
want. The same might be true of housing—we
can certainly live without it, but that leads to all sorts of other
problems.
What I’d like to suggest is that
the heart of the story of the Fall in Genesis 3 is Satan’s deception of Adam
& Eve. They are deceived into
believing that God has not provided for their every need, and they begin to
believe that the best way to secure the desires of their hearts is to provide
for their own needs, failing to trust in God’s gracious provision and turning
inward rather than looking to God. This
is a story about a people who stop trusting God to supply their needs.
Look at what happens here. God has placed Adam and Eve in the
garden. The Garden is a beautiful and
lush place, abounding in life. Not only
are the plants beautiful to look at, but they provide fruit for the two of them
to eat. There is not a single need they
have that is not met by God’s gracious provision. Life is good in the Garden.
Now, it is true that God has placed
a tree in the Garden from which they cannot eat. But they do not need to eat of this
tree. Their physical, emotional and
spiritual needs are met. If they
continue to trust God to meet their needs, life will be just grand.
But the serpent deceives Adam and
Eve. They don’t call him the Father of
Lies for nothing. Until this point, Adam
and Eve had trusted that what God gave them was enough. They trusted in God’s provision.
But now, they begin to question
God. God told them that they would die
if they ate this fruit, but Satan has them begin to question this. They stop trusting God’s word. Next, they see the tree as desirous because
it might make them wise. Satan has told
them it will make them like God. They no
longer trust in God as the holder of wisdom—they want to reach out and obtain
this wisdom for themselves. Like a ten
year old who isn’t content to sit in the backseat and let his parents drive,
Eve reaches out, takes the fruit and eats of it, hoping to become like God in
the process, no longer trusting God to meet her every need. What she wants is, in her mind, what she
needs. Now, Adam is with her this whole
time, and undoubtedly these same thoughts are in his mind. He doesn’t object when she gives him the
fruit. He ate of it readily, also
confused by Satan’s lies between what he needed and what he wanted.
What I want you to notice is the
first thing that happens after they eat of this forbidden fruit. Their eyes were open, and the first thing
they notice is a lack of clothes. They
realize that they’re running around buck naked, so they make some out of fig
leaves. Their sin leads them to
recognize their lack.
This is what sin does. Rather than focus us on what God has
graciously provided for us, it focuses us on what we don’t have. Our eyes and our souls are suddenly aware of
all that we are missing, and we begin to believe that we need these things.
Now, think for a moment. Why on earth would Adam and Eve need
clothes? They are the only two people on
earth running around a garden, and they’d been naked since the day they were
created. Clothes weren’t a need back
then.
But their sin makes them see what
they lack. It focuses them on the wrong
thing.
How many of you remember the first
line of the 23rd Psalm?
The
Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
I shall not want. Those are powerful words. Think about that for a second—can you imagine
what it would be like to never want for anything? To have each and every need met, and to
recognize that the things you don’t have are not needed? That would provide a pretty powerful sense of
peace, right? You wouldn’t be anxious
for anything, right?
I believe that’s where the Lord is
trying to lead us. I think God is trying
to lead us back into a deep relationship with God where we recognize and trust
that God will meet our needs. We let go
of our anxious desires to secure our own futures and trust in God. We let God’s peace pervade throughout our
lives as we lean into him, trusting in his gracious provision.
What’s this look like?
I think we all could do with a
little more gratitude. When we recognize
how grateful we are and how much we have to be grateful for, we’re better able
to recognize God’s blessings in our lives.
When we look back, we see how God has led us through so many different
challenges and we trust that he will lead us through whatever is in our
future. When we see how often God is at
work, we can stop worrying so much about trying to provide for ourselves.
Friends, sin has led us into a life
where we furiously try to provide for ourselves. God is trying to lead us back into a way of
life where we are trusting in his gracious provision. In our redemption, God purchased us back,
providing for everlasting life through the gift of Jesus Christ. This is not something we could have done on
our own. We can only receive this gift
with gratitude. We can only trust in God
to provide for our every eternal need.
Notice what happens even after the Fall—In verse 21, God clothes Adam
and Eve. Not because he has to… but
because he is so gracious.
So may we be grateful for God’s
gracious provision, and may we stop worrying about lack and give thanks for the
abundant life we find in Christ alone.
Let us pray
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