Sunday, September 8, 2013

Who are We? Sinful, but... (Sermon on the Fall, 9/8/2013)


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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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